One of the most important names behind the space mission that brought samples collected by NASA from the asteroid Bennu to Earth was Brian May, guitarist of the legendary rock band Queen...
Sir Brian May, an astrophysicist with a Ph.D., illuminated the path to be followed during the mission by making three-dimensional inferences from two-dimensional photographs of the 490-meter diameter meteorite.
A scientist is sometimes not just a scientist: Greg Graffin, the vocalist of Bad Religion, whom you may know from songs such as “Sorrow” and “Infected”, has a doctorate in zoology from Cornell University (his doctoral thesis is titled: “Monism, Atheism and the Naturalistic View of Nature: Perspectives from Evolutionary Biology”) and also teaches basic science courses at UCLA.
BBC's (and Manchester University's) famous physicist Brian Cox was the keyboardist of a pop band called D:Ream, and songs he wrote such as "Things Can Only Get Better" hit number 1 in the UK charts.
Art Garfunkel, one half of Simon and Garfunkel, has a master's degree in mathematics (but dropped out of his Ph.D.).
Bryan "Dexter" Holland, the vocalist of the pop-punk band The Offspring, who defined the end of the 90s with "Pretty Fly", received his doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Southern California and looked for ways to stop AIDS by studying the genetic material of HIV.
But perhaps most importantly, Sir Dr., guitarist of the rock band Queen shook the world. Brian May...
Yes, if you are asking how perfect a person can be, the answer is hidden in Brian May's life. Moreover, May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from Imperial College, one of the most prestigious universities in England, continues his scientific life actively, unlike most other artists: For example, May said, “Bang! – Co-author of popular science books such as “The Complete History of the Universe” and “The Cosmic Tourist”.
He contributed to a paper published in the journal Nature Communications in 2020, which analyzed spectroscopic analysis of events such as disruptions and reactions occurring in asteroids such as Bennu and Ryugu. He took part in the analysis of stereographic images that will reveal the structural stability of the Didymos double asteroid, which is the target of DART in 2021.
Brian May most recently took part in the first asteroid sample mission that NASA managed to bring back to Earth. I don't know if you remember, but NASA launched a mission called OSIRIS-REx from Cape Canaveral Base on September 8, 2016. OSIRIS-REx is the abbreviation of the words "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer". As this long name suggests, the mission's objectives were multi-dimensional. You may be interested in the "Security" part of the job; because this mission also aimed to get to know the asteroids that could threaten the Earth more closely. Its target was an asteroid named Bennu, with a diameter of 490 meters, which completed its orbit around itself in 4.3 hours and passed relatively close to the Earth. OSIRIS-REx arrived at Bennu in December 2018 and began collecting data. On October 20, 2020, the most exciting part of the mission was successfully completed: OSIRIS-REx touched the surface of Bennu for a short time and collected samples from there.
Bennu is a 4.6 billion-year-old rock. It occurred during the initial formation of the solar system and has continued to orbit around the Sun ever since.
Having completed this part of its mission, OSIRIS-REx set out for Earth, and the capsule it was carrying managed to land on our planet without any problems recently.
May became interested in science at a very young age; But as a result of his stars shining with Queen, he had to abandon his doctorate on the distribution and properties of dust particles in interplanetary space. Returning to his scientific studies, he had to wait until 2006 and continued his studies for 1 more year and managed to receive his doctorate.
When I close my eyes after a busy day and listen to Queen's triumphant songs, I always think of Brian May's scientific career during his solos. I feel like I know him personally. Because what he has done is truly one of the highest points that humanity can reach. If you think about it, science and art are twin threads that weave uniquely human patterns of understanding and expression into the complex tapestry of human achievement: science probes the mysteries of the universe, illuminates the mysteries of the stars, and deciphers the code of atoms, while art captures the essence of the human soul, resonating with our deepest emotions and longings. Together, these two shape the entire human experience by combining logic with intuition and evidence with imagination, and as Avicenna said, they abandon societies where they are not respected.
Being actively involved in both, like Brian May, dancing on the precipice of discovery and creativity, is somewhere the pinnacle of human potential.
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Join Brian May for a Stereoscopic Adventure in Space
https://astronomynow.com/2016/01/23/join-brian-may-for-a-stereoscopic-adventure-in-space/