Researcher on James Webb images: 'It brought me to tears'

The City of Houston figured prominently in the unveiling of images captured by National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported that NASA released the images in a couple of batches of a two-day span, images that showed the farthest reaches of the universe. 

“As we take in the fantastic achievement that is the James Webb telescope, let’s celebrate our community’s innovation: Congratulations to our Johnson Space Center, where the telescope spent many months, and the incredible Harris County professionals who worked on the project,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a tweet.

KHOU reported that Houston native Dr. Stefanie Milam was a member of the team that worked to turn the decades-long Webb project into a reality.

“I was part of the initial team to review the images before they were released,” Milam, whose career was forged by childhood visits to Houston’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), told KHOU.

She added that viewing the images was emotional.

“It brought me to tears,” Milam told the station.

On a website devoted to the JWST, NASA described it as large infrared telescope with a nearly 6.5-meter primary mirror that was launched last year.

“Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide,” NASA said on the website.

According to KHOU, about 20,000 people have worked on the $10 billion JWST.

Houston FOX affiliate KRIV reported that the telescope is perched more than a million miles from Earth.

The station reported that before the JWST went into space, it had spent significant time in Houston, even enduring Hurricane Harvey during the summer of 2017.

"All of the trouble they went through to get this aircraft up there over the many years and decades, it’s certainly paying off," University of Houston (UH) physics professor Dr. Lawrence Pinsky told KRIV.

Click here to view the images.