It’s one of Queen’s most famous guitarist curiosities. But did you know that astrophysicist Brian May helped NASA with an amazing mission?
It was in 1970 when Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon and Freddie Mercury came together to form one of the best bands of all time, the… queen. The British group was distinguished by its unique sound with a mixture of rock, blues and opera.
Led by the eccentric Freddie Mercury, the band quickly captured the attention of the British public, and then the world. Queen worked together until 1991, when the famous vocalist died.
Later, in 1997, John Deacon retired from his music career. Between 2004 and 2009, the band joined forces with Paul Rodgers in partnership, but it was only in 2011 that the band sounded old again. Adam Lambert’s voice brought to mind the glorious decades of the 70s and 80s.
However, one of the band members has a completely different parallel life. Even when Quinn was about to take her first steps, Brian May graduated in physics from the University of Imperial College London.
Already in the band, he was pursuing his doctorate at the same time. Due to Queen’s rapid success, Brian May ended up withdrawing from the cycle. But he returned in 2006 to finish his doctorate.
From legendary guitarist to direct advisor to NASABrian May has done it all. In a recent interview with National GeographicThe British musician tells how he helped NASA with a difficult mission.
From music to science
He begins by talking about his interest in zodiacal dust, the cloud of rocky grains that fill the interplanetary space in our solar system. An interest that arose while I was still at Imperial College London in 1970.
The interest never went away, and when he finally finished his PhD in 2007, it was the topic of his dissertation. In recent years, the musician devotes more time to astrophysics, collaborating closely with NASA. In 2015, he was part of the team that viewed 3D images of Pluto for the first time. But it was the experience in that mission that led him to the team Osiris Rex.
Through holographic experiments, they were able to plan a landing on the asteroid Bennu. Brian helped May choose the ideal site to collect samples, a task that turned out to be successful.
For the guitarist and astrophysicist – “Asteroids are like time capsules from the early solar system. We can learn a lot about what this site looked like 4.5 billion years ago by studying primitive materials from Bennu.
Read the interview on to merge
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