John: HEEEEEY, happy birthday, it's Hanko de Mayo! Good morning, Hank, it's Saturday, May 5th, 2012, HAPPY HANKO DE MAYO! (Sing-a-ma-jig plays) YAAAAAY! Huzzah! I'm not actually going to drink this because it's 6:45 in the morning, but, you know, you get the idea. Okay, Hank, so this is the James Webb space telescope, which is being primarily built by the company Northrop Grumman and funded by NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, there are like 17 countries involved in it. And, Hank, as you've pointed out before, the JWST is going to be really frakking awesome, because it allows us to see objects in the distant universe, like outward edge of the universe would be, but no edge. But the coolest thing is that by letting us see really far away, it lets us see really far into the past. Right, so here's a cool thing, light travels about 186,000 miles per second, by the way, I'm getting to your birthday. The sun is about 93 million miles from earth, which takes light about eight minutes to get from the sun to the earth. And that means when you look at the sun, not recommended, you're actually seeing the sun from eight minutes ago. That's like a moderately cool thing when you're talking about the sun, but it is an astonishingly cool thing when you're talking about objects that are, like, 13 billion light years away, because then, you can see 13 billion years into the past. And that will allow the James Webb space telescope to see the formations of the earliest galaxies, it's a time machine, I don't want to oversimplify it, but it's basically an unmanned TARDIS. So, Hank, in a video a few months ago, you said that the James Webb space telescope was, like, our pyramids. It was a monument that we were not only making for ourselves, but for everyone who would come after us. And you reminded me that while it's hugely important to decrease suck in this world, it is also important to increase awesome. So, Hank, for your birthday, I wrote an e-mail to my congressperson, Andre Carson, asking him to make sure that NASA gets the funding that it needs to increase awesome. And Nerdfighters, if you wanna join me in saying happy birthday to Hank through this effort, there is information on how to do so in the doobly-doo. We also got you another present. This is the primary mirror backbone support structure of the JWST. Which NASA and Northrop Grumman call by the memorable initialism PMBSS. The PMBSS basically holds the whole thing together, and it's largely made out of this crazy graphite compound tubing that is like, crazy strong but also hilariously light. I know that it is hilariously light because Northrop Grumman sent me part of the James Webb Space Telescope for you to have. Well, they didn't send you part of the telescope, obviously, that has to go into space, but they had an extra part. Obviously, Hank, you won't fully understand this until it gets to your house, but this stuff really is amazing, like, I can't bend it despite my famous strength, and also, this weighs about as much as a paperclip. And, yeah, Hank, this isn't like a common souvenir, there aren't a lot of these floating around, but this is your part of the James Webb Space Telescope! I hope you like it. Also, I have to thank Michael Gardner and everybody at NASA and Northrop Grumman who made this happen, especially Martin Fredrick. So, Hank, thank you for increasing awesome through vlogbrothers and the Lizzie Bennet Diaries and SciShow and CrashCourse and hankgames and VidCon and DFTBA Records and EcoGeek, you do too much. Hank, video responses are open, and you'll find lots of birthday wishes from all over Nerdfighteria including an astonishing number of regurgitated corn dogs. Hank, I hope you like this little symbol of our species' desire to increase awesome. Contact your politicians, it's easy and fun, or at the very least, easy! And they listen to you because they're scared of you. Happy Hanko de Mayo, you will see me again on Tuesday. Best wishes!