If you're an aficionado of 1970s rock, you've probably got the soaring guitar licks on Queen's“Bohemian Rhapsody”still etched deeply into your gray matter. But Brian May, the British virtuoso who played those notes, is enough of asciencerock star that NASA recently invited him to meetings with researchers working on the agency'sNew Horizonsspace probe.
While many stadium rockers used to fancy themselves as cosmic, May actually has a legitimate claim to that distinction. He received a doctorate in astrophysics from London's Imperial College in 2008, where he now is avisiting researcher.
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新视野号了first close-up imagesof the dwarf planet Pluto. May helped out by assembling two of the images captured by the satellite to create thefirst high-quality stereo imageof the distant orb. (Note: To get the 3-D effect, you'll need to buy ormake your own stereoscopic viewer.)
May long has been fascinated with stereoscopy, which as he explains in thisYouTube video, is an art form that dates back to the Victorian age.
“Of course the New Horizons guys were already doing serious science on this image as it arrived,” May wrote in hisblog. “But I was able to assemble the two images to make the most satisfying stereo view I can ever remember making.”
May also createdthis videocongratulating the New Horizons team on their achievement, which includes images of Pluto accompanied by his famous “Bohemian Rhapsody” solo.
Music and science have both been longterm passions for May, who earned a scholarship to Imperial College in 1965. It was while studying there that he formed the band Queen with singer Freddie Mercury, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor. When the group began to tour, he ended up leaving before completing his Ph.D. But May continued dabbling in astronomy as a hobby. "It was very difficult at the time and I disappointed my parents who wanted me to go along the academic route," he toldBBC Newsin 2002.
但当帝国offered him a chance to return and finish his degree work, he jumped at the chance, carrying out astronomical observations on from Tenerife in the Canary Islands, and composing a 48,000-word thesis on the formation of dust clouds in our solar system from asteroid and comet collisions. “It's been the longest gap year ever,” he joked at the time. He went on to pass the customary oral examination, in which his work was scrutinized by experts in his field.
In a stingy age where scientists struggle to get grants for space research, the wealth that May earned from his rock music career comes in handy. In 2013, he toldRolling Stonehe was funding a project to increase surveillance of comets and asteroids that might fly near Earth, because he was concerned about the risk of a catastrophic collision. “It's more than possible, and we don't have enough scouts out there looking for them,” he said.
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