Queen's Brian May helped NASA return its first asteroid sample | CNN

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/25/world/brian-may-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-bennu-scn-intl-scli/index.html?

187 points · 27 comments · view on lemmy.world

27 Comments

Rhaedas@kbin.social · 27 pts · 2y

"And Brian doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene.
He's got a daytime job, he's doing all right."

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 2y (14 replies)

Nice to see him make good use of his degree. I always thought it was cool that there are two major British bands- Queen and Dare- with Astrophysicists in them.

merc@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 2y (2 replies)

In October 2006, May re-registered for his doctorate at Imperial College, and he submitted his thesis in August 2007

the revised thesis (titled "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud")[1] was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced

In 2020, he participated in the team that contributed the stereography images of numerical simulations of asteroid disruptions and re-accumulations in a publication in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications

It actually sounds like he's pretty busy with the science these days.

Steeve@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 2y

the revised thesis (titled "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud")[1] was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced

The king of procrastination

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y

Admittedly, I haven't been paying close attention to Brian May's physics career.

UniquesNotUseful@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Brian Cox was also in d:Ream.

American but E from the eels, his dad came up with the Many Worlds Interpretation

Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social · 2 pts · 2y (1 reply)

There's an episode of Nova where E talks about his dad and his tragic life. It's one of my favorites

Corngood@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 2y

There's actually a BBC doc about it too, which I thought was good:

https://www.eelstheband.com/parallel_worlds.php

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2y (7 replies)

I'd hesitate to call Dare "major."

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (5 replies)

I mean, they're not Queen, but they charted.

can@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2y (3 replies)

Would I know any of their songs?

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (1 reply)

I have no idea. This is the song I think of when I think of Dare. I also have to say, I'm not a big fan of Dare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMEGgYNNrCw

Astrophysicist and public science educator Brian Cox is playing keyboards.

can@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 2y

Guess not

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y

No.

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 2y

A cursory search, which I ran before I commented, didn't reveal that fact for me.

Mere charting isn't a great measure, though, since plenty of ephemeral trash has done so as well.

theodewere@kbin.social · -1 pts · 2y

it's simple enough.. Dare were major and Queen were positively astronomical, mate..

bobman@unilem.org · 22 pts · 2y (6 replies)

They should really specify 'The band Queen'

Kowowow@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Ya brian didn't make sense I guess so it was just subliminally swapping it for brain and I thought the title was referring to queen elizabeth's brain

ElBarto@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2y

Which would have only been slightly weirder than the guitarist from the band Queen helping.

agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Read the title as "Queen's brain may help..." which puzzled me I must say

sizzler@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

Read the title as "Queen Brian" and simply thought "about time"

Endorkend@kbin.social · 2 pts · 2y

It's a given since he got his Sir Brian title from King Charles :p

theodewere@kbin.social · 0 pts · 2y

late 20th Century swing quartet

TomMasz@kbin.social · 14 pts · 2y

Rock 'n' Roller in the streets
Astrophysicist in the sheets

theodewere@kbin.social · 11 pts · 2y

and he wrote music that helped Flash Gordon save the Universe

killeronthecorner@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2y

He's such a legend, this included, but I'll never be able to forget the story about his catastrophic arse failure

spider@lemmy.nz · 5 pts · 2y

Not only is he the Queen guitarist

Pretty good vocalist, too.