I was surprised to hear from Queen’s Brian May regarding the recent landing of the asteroid Bennu sample in the Utah desert. Here is what he posted and stated on his page:
“Today is the day – the long awaited day – when the sample of a piece of material From Bennu – the asteroid most likely to hit the Earth in the future, is recovered to Earth. This box when it is opened of material from the surface of Bennu can tell us untold secret of the origins of the universe, the origins or our planet and the origins of life itself. What an incredibly exciting day. Tune into Nasa TV. Go to the OSIRIS-REx website. Read my new book for the full story – Bennu 3-D – written with leader of the mission, Dante Lauretta. And enjoy this wonderful forward step in our knowledge of the universe.”
As you can see above, Brian May is named on the book about the asteroid. He is also credited with assisting NASA with the location of the sample landing. I was not aware of his deep involvement with the Bennu mission, or astronomy in general. In addition to the points above, it is worth noted that Mr. May (per Wikipedia):
- earned a PhD degree in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007;
- was a “science team collaborator” with NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission;
- is a co-founder of the awareness campaign Asteroid Day; and
- has an asteroid named after him – Asteroid 52665 Brianmay.
Pretty impressive for a guy with a singing day job.
Our Awesome Universe 