If we want to see what galaxies looked like at a time close to the beginning of the universe, where should we look?
A) in the Local Group of galaxies
B) within the nearest 100 million light years from the Milky Way
C) near the center of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies
D) in a direction away from the plane of the Milky Way, where we can see very faint galaxies that are more than 10 billion light years away
E) it doesn't matter; you can look at any galaxy, because all galaxies look pretty much the same today as they did in the early days of the universe
Section 28.2: Galaxy Mergers and Active Galactic Nuclei

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Looking in a direction away from the plane of the Milky Way allows us to see very faint galaxies that are more than 10 billion light years away, which means we are seeing them as they appeared close to the beginning of the universe. This is because light from those galaxies has taken more than 10 billion years to reach us, so we are seeing them as they were when the universe was very young.

If We Want to See What Galaxies Looked Like at a Time