brian may astrophysics phd thesis

Queen's Guitarist Publishes Astrophysics Thesis

The founder of the legendary rock band Queen has completedhis doctoral thesis in astrophysics after taking a 30-year break to play someguitar.

Brian May's thesis examines the mysterious phenomenon knownas Zodiacal light, a misty diffuse cone of light that appears in the westernsky after sunset and in the eastern sky before sunrise. Casual observers, ifthey live under very dark rural skies, can best see the light two to threehours before sunrise as they look east, and many people have been fooled intoseeing it as the first sign of morning twilight. A Persian astronomer who livedaround the 12th century referred to it as "false dawn" in a poem.

Astronomers now know that Zodiacal light represents reflectedsunlight shining on scattered space debris clustered most densely near thesun . The millions of particles range in size from tiny asteroids tomicroscopic dust grains, and extend outward beyond the orbit of Mars.

May's work focuses on an instrument that recorded 250 scansof morning and evening Zodiacal light between 1971 and 1972. The Fabry-PerotSpectrometer is located at the Observatorio del Teide at Izana in Tenerife, thelargest of the Canary Islands.

The completed thesis appears as the book "A Survey ofRadial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" (Springer and CanopusPublishing Ltd., 2008).

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my years playing guitar andrecording music with Queen, but it's extremely gratifying to see thepublication of my thesis," May said. "I've been fascinated withastronomy for years, and I was happy to finally complete my Ph.D. last year andrecord my studies of the Zodiacal Light in this book."

May officially received hisdoctorate on Aug. 24, 2007, from the Imperial College in London. He alsogained the appointmentof chancellor for Liverpool John Moores University in November of thatyear, showing that he's not just any guitar hero.

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Queen Guitarist Brian May Is Also an Astrophysicist: Read His PhD Thesis Online

in Astronomy , Music , Physics | July 1st, 2019 6 Comments

Pho­to by ESO/G. Huede­pohl, via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons

Queen could­n’t pos­si­bly have been Queen with­out Fred­die Mer­cury, nor could it have been Queen with­out Bri­an May. Thanks not least to the recent biopic,  Bohemi­an Rhap­sody , the band’s already larg­er-than-life lead singer has become even larg­er still. But its gui­tarist, despite the film’s sur­face treat­ment of his char­ac­ter, is in his own way an equal­ly implau­si­ble fig­ure. Not only did he show musi­cal promise ear­ly, form­ing his first group while still at school, he also got his A Lev­els in physics, math­e­mat­ics, and applied math­e­mat­ics, going on to earn a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Physics with hon­ors at Impe­r­i­al Col­lege Lon­don.

Nat­u­ral­ly, May then went for his PhD, con­tin­u­ing at Impe­r­i­al Col­lege where he stud­ied the veloc­i­ty of, and light reflect­ed by, inter­plan­e­tary dust in the Solar Sys­tem. He began the pro­gram in 1970, but “in 1974, when Queen was but a princess in its infan­cy, May chose to aban­don his doc­tor­ate stud­ies to focus on the band in their quest to con­quer the world.” So wrote The Tele­graph ’s Felix Lowe in 2007, the year the by-then 60-year-old (and long world-famous) rock­er final­ly hand­ed in his the­sis. “The 48,000-word tome, Radi­al Veloc­i­ties in the Zodi­a­cal Dust Cloud , which sounds sus­pi­cious­ly like a Spinal Tap LP, was stored in the loft of his home in Sur­rey.” You can read it online here .

Accord­ing to its abstract, May’s the­sis “doc­u­ments the build­ing of a pres­sure-scanned Fab­ry-Per­ot Spec­trom­e­ter, equipped with a pho­to­mul­ti­pli­er and pulse-count­ing elec­tron­ics, and its deploy­ment at the Obser­va­to­rio del Tei­de at Iza­ña in Tener­ife, at an alti­tude of 7,700 feet (2567 m), for the pur­pose of record­ing high-res­o­lu­tion spec­tra of the Zodi­a­cal Light.” Space.com describes the Zodia­cial Light as “a misty dif­fuse cone of light that appears in the west­ern sky after sun­set and in the east­ern sky before sun­rise,” one that has long tricked casu­al observers into “see­ing it as the first sign of morn­ing twi­light.” Astronomers now rec­og­nize it as “reflect­ed sun­light shin­ing on scat­tered space debris clus­tered most dense­ly near the sun.”

In his abstract, May also notes the unusu­al­ly long peri­od of study as 1970–2007, made pos­si­ble in part by the fact that lit­tle oth­er research had been done in this par­tic­u­lar sub­ject area dur­ing Queen’s reign on the charts and there­after. Still, he had catch­ing up to do, includ­ing obser­va­tion­al work in Tener­ife (as much of a hard­ship post­ing as that isn’t). Since being award­ed his doc­tor­ate, May’s sci­en­tif­ic activ­i­ties have con­tin­ued, as have his musi­cal ones and oth­er pur­suits besides, such as ani­mal-rights activism and stere­og­ra­phy. (Some­times these inter­sect: the 2017 pho­to­book Queen in 3‑D , for exam­ple, uses a VR view­ing device of May’s own design.) The next time you meet a young­ster dither­ing over whether to go into astro­physics or found one of the most suc­cess­ful rock bands of all time, point them to May’s exam­ple and let them know doing both isn’t with­out prece­dent.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Gui­tarist Bri­an May Explains the Mak­ing of Queen’s Clas­sic Song, ‘Bohemi­an Rhap­sody’

Bri­an May’s Home­made Gui­tar, Made From Old Tables, Bike and Motor­cy­cle Parts & More

Stephen Hawking’s Ph.D. The­sis, “Prop­er­ties of Expand­ing Uni­vers­es,” Now Free to Read/Download Online

Watch 94 Free Lec­tures From the Great Cours­es: Dystopi­an Fic­tion, Astro­physics, Gui­tar Play­ing & Much More

Based in Seoul,  Col­in Mar­shall  writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His projects include the book  The State­less City: a Walk through 21st-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les  and the video series  The City in Cin­e­ma . Fol­low him on Twit­ter at  @colinmarshall , on  Face­book , or on  Insta­gram .

by Colin Marshall | Permalink | Comments (6) |

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Comments (6), 6 comments so far.

“Woody Paul” Christ­man aka “King of the Cow­boy Fid­dlers” from the cow­boy band “Rid­ers in the Sky” (they did the music for the movie Toy Sto­ry) has a PhD in Plas­ma Physics from MIT. Yes, the King of Cow­boy Fid­dlers is a Rock­et Sci­en­tist!!!

Love­ly to see well known peo­ple with strong left brain as well as right brain men­tal activ­i­ty! Wow!

Bri­an May is so genius!! Tal­ent­ed, kind, sweet tge rea­son why he deserved all of this. Long live leg­end!! We quee­nies are so proud of you! :)

My son, Christo­pher, is an aero­space engi­neer (and a drum­mer in his band!) He had to explain to me what astro­physics is! I adore Queen and hope my dream to meet you, Bri­an, and Roger comes true when you are in Wash­ing­ton DC this month! It would be such a dream come true. (I have a lit­tle hedge hog present for you.) Music and space will always go togeth­er in our fam­i­ly and yours! May God bless your fam­i­ly, your kind­ness and com­pas­sion. Espe­cial­ly today, on our plan­et, we need more Bri­an Mays! Hope, hope, hope to shake your hand at the stage door. Love, Ann (Miss Fred­die so much.)

Got my A‑levels in physics, pure math, and applied math in Hert­ford­shire. Went on to get my BSc and ARCS in physics at Impe­r­i­al Col­lege in 1970. Very much inspired along the way by Sir Patrick Moore. Did­n’t know how much I had in com­mon with Sir Bri­an May. Wish I had met him when we were there. Great mem­o­ries.

The two fields aren’t as dis­parate as you might think. Music, at its core, is real­ly just very beau­ti­ful math.

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Brian May CBE, PhD, ARCS, FRAS, and a founding member of Queen, is a world-renowned guitarist, songwriter, producer and performer.

May abandoned his PhD studies at Imperial College London in 1974 when Queen’s popularity first exploded but always retained a keen interest in astronomy, and has been a regular contributor to “The Sky at Night,” BBC TV’s monthly astronomy program hosted by Sir Patrick Moore.

Returning to astrophysical research in 2006, he was awarded his PhD and is now Chancellor of John Moores University, and a patron to a number of charities, including the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the British Bone Marrow Donor Association.

His PhD thesis "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" has just been co-published by Springer and Canopus Publishing Ltd.

May’s thesis examines the Zodiacal Light, the misty diffuse cone of light seen in the West after sunset and the East before sunrise. Though anyone can see the Zodiacal Light from a suitably dark location, it is poorly understood, and has been the subject of relatively little research. May began his research of the Zodiacal Light in 1970 and completed his research and thesis in 2007, following a 30-year hiatus to play guitar in the well-known rock band Queen.

While some readers may expect a rock-and-roll guitarist to write a less rigorous 'popular' astronomy book, May's work is instead a rigorous, academic examination of the Zodiacal Light. His thesis documents the building of a pressure-scanned Fabry-Perot Spectrometer, equipped with a photomultiplier and pulse-counting electronics, and its deployment at the Observatorio del Teide at Izaña in Tenerife, at an altitude of 7,700 feet (2,567 m), to record high-resolution spectra of the Zodiacal Light. More than 250 scans of morning and evening Zodiacal Light were recorded, in two observing periods in 1971 and 1972.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my years playing guitar and recording music with Queen, but it’s extremely gratifying to see the publication of my thesis, A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud,” May said. “I’ve been fascinated with astronomy for years, and I was happy to finally complete my PhD last year and record my studies of the Zodiacal Light in this book.”

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Queen's Brian May to complete astrophysics doctorate

Social sharing.

Queen guitarist and songwriter Brian May, who gave up studying the stars to become one, will soon complete his doctorate in astrophysics.

May, 60, will submit a thesis titled Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud next week at Imperial College London.

May joined with Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor to help form the rockgroup Queen in 1969.

The group became an international success with hits such as Bohemian Rhapsody and We Will Rock You and May left his doctorate unfinished.

After Mercury's death in 1991, May recorded several solo albums, including 1998's Another World.

He continued his interest in astrophysics and co-wrote Bang! The Complete History of the Universe , which was published last year.

May has also appeared on the BBC program The Sky at Night with Patrick Moore.

Now he's ready to complete hisdoctorate.

"I didn't want an honorary PhD. I wanted the real thing that I worked for," he told the BBC.

To gain his doctorate he has studied the night skies at an observatory on the island of La Palma, in Spain's Canary Islands.

With files from the Associated Press

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Queen’s May gets PhD in astrophysics

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LONDON -- Guitarist and songwriter Brian May has completed his doctorate in astrophysics -- three decades after he put academia on hold to form the rock group Queen.

The rocker was awarded his his PhD this week by London’s Imperial College and said submitting his thesis, “Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud,” to supervisors was as nerve-racking as any stadium gig.

“I’m feeling rather joyful. I cannot tell you how much of a weight off the mind it is,” May said.

May was an astrophysics student at Imperial College when he joined Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor to form Queen in 1970, but dropped his doctorate as the glam rock band became successful. Queen became one of Britain’s biggest music groups in the 1970s, with hits including “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Will Rock You.”

After Mercury’s 1991 death, May produced two solo albums, the latest of which, “Another World,” appeared in 1998.

But the guitarist continued to pursue his out-of-this-world interests. His thesis was a 48,000-word study that seeks to prove planets and dust clouds in our solar system orbit in the same direction.

May will be formally presented with his doctorate next May.

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Rock And Roll Garage

Queen’s brian may talks about his doctorate in astrophysics.

Classic Rock

Queen guitarist Brian May talked in an interview with Kevin O’Sullivan Show about his doctorate in astrophysics and how hard it was to go back to the thesis 30 years later.

Queen’s Brian May talks about his doctorate in astrophysics:

You were at imperial college studying astrophysics, along came a little band that distracted you for a while, but was it always in the back of your mind, ‘i must finish that doctorate sometime’.

“You know, it was – in a way, it was unfinished business. I always had a passion for astronomy right alongside the passion for music. There was always that kind of yearning feeling, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice…'”

“But I thought it was impossible, to be honest. It was Patrick Moore, my wonderful mentor, and kind of a surrogate uncle, who kind of persuaded me. He said, ‘Oh, Brian, you can do it,’ and I said, ‘Patrick, I can’t. My brain’s gone. I’ve been playing music; my brain is in a different place.’ He said, ‘No – you can do it, you can go back there.’ I started talking about it in an interview on the radio.”

“I got a call from the head of Astrophysics at the Imperial College, the new professor of Astrophysics, Professor Michael Rowan-Robinson. He said, ‘If you’re serious about this, you can come back here and I will be your supervisor and you can finish your Ph.D.'”

“It was so hard, you know? Three distinct times I thought to myself, ‘I have to give up, I cannot do this.’ I think that’s the nature of PhDs. They have to make it hard for you.  Of course, I was very visible. So my supervisor couldn’t make it easy for me. Because everyone would have attacked him and said, ‘He made it easy because he’s a rockstar’.”

“So it was really tough. I gave up a year of my life totally to doing it. And I gave up everything. All I could do was focus on this Ph.D. thesis, which I resurrected from 30 years ago,” Brian May said.

Your subject was Zodiacal dust. Tell us just briefly what you can what Zodiacal dust is…

“Zodiacal dust is basically the dust from which the solar system forms. And it’s continually created and sucked into the sun, so it’s continually replenished. But in the days when I started, not much was known about it. There was a bit of research done, and what I did was look for the motions of the dust to figure out which way it was rotating and where it was coming from, etcetera, etcetera.”

“So 30 years later, it’s been really not that much talked about, but suddenly we’re discovering exoplanets, exosolar systems, solar systems, planets revolving around other suns, other stars, and suddenly it’s realized that all these solar systems have their own Zodiacal dust clouds.”

“And how can we study those dust clouds? Well, let’s go and study our own one, it’s right on our doorstep. So suddenly my subject became kind of – not exactly trendy but it became definitely of interest, and a sort of a hot subject, so I was very lucky,” Brian May said.

Maybe in years to come, you will not be remembered as the amazing Queen guitarist, but the man who put the Zodiacal dust on the map… [Laughs]

“Maybe so, yeah, maybe so. It’s interesting, I thought I saw dust coming from outside the solar system, which was a little bit of a sort of a risky thing to say at the time. It was kind-of a heresy. And my supervisor said, ‘Don’t publish that.’ This is 30-40 years ago now; he said, ‘Don’t publish it because people are going to laugh at you.’

“But now we know that material does come into our solar system from outside, from interstellar space. So I kind of wish I’d published that. But you know, some things are not meant to be,” Brian May said.

I'm a Brazilian journalist who always loved Classic Rock and Heavy Metal music. That passion inspired me to create Rock and Roll Garage over 6 years ago. Music has always been a part of my life, helping me through tough times and being a support to celebrate the good ones. When I became a journalist, I knew I wanted to write about my passions. After graduating in journalism from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, I pursued a postgraduate degree in digital communication at the same institution. The studies and experience in the field helped me improve the website and always bring the best of classic rock to the world! MTB: 0021377/MG

Brian May: Hon Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Hull University

Taking place 10.30am today …  [thurs 14 july 2022].

Brian May will be awarded “Doctor of Science, honoris causa” by the University of Hull, via video link.

CONGRATULATIONS DR BRI

[See Brian’s Acceptance Speech Video and Transcript, plus Citation HERE ]

Univertisty of Hull 11 July 2022

Thousands of students from the University of Hull will graduate this month at the Bonus Arena bringing more than 24,000 guests to the city as they celebrate all their achievements and hard work of the past few years.

Alongside nearly 5,000 graduands will be 12 honorary graduands attending across the 21 ceremonies commencing on Thursday 14 July and taking place over two weeks. Dame Sarah Gilbert and Brian May, CBE, PhD, FRAS are amongst the 12 esteemed and highly-acclaimed honorary graduates, including four University of Hull alumni.

Dr Brian May CBE, founding member of Queen, guitarist, renowned songwriter, skilled producer and beloved performer will be graduating at the first ceremony on Thursday by video link . As well as being an incredibly successful and award-winning musician, Brian is a Doctor of Astrophysics after resuming his studies and achieving his PhD from Imperial College, London in 2007.

Brian was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for ‘services to the Music Industry’ and for his charity work. Brian will be presented with Doctor of Science, honoris causa at the graduation ceremony on Thursday 14 July at 10.30am.

Professor Brad Gibson, Head of the University’s Department of Physics & Mathematics and Director of the E.A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics, said:

“We are absolutely delighted to be able to honour such a famed and accomplished musician and passionate astrophysicist. Dr Brian May’s commitment to astrophysics throughout his successful career in Queen is certainly something to be admired and, indeed, recognised.”

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Queen Guitarist Brian May On Writing Anthems And Studying Astrophysics

Terry Gross

Brian May spoke to Fresh Air in 2010 about writing "We Will Rock You," recording the many vocals in "Bohemian Rhapsody" and getting a Ph.D. The biopic Bohemian Rhapsody details Queen's meteoric rise.

Hear The Original Interview

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Queen's brian may rocks out to physics, photography.

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Brian May's Astrophysics Doctoral Thesis

The guitarist for Queen just published his PhD thesis on Zodiacal light.

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"I have thoroughly enjoyed my years playing guitar and recording music with Queen, but it's extremely gratifying to see the publication of my thesis," May said. He took a 30 year break from his studies

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Brian May Spent 30 Years Earning His Ph.D. in Astrophysics

The most memorable moments of music can inspire such awe in some listeners that the songs make fans feel like they transported you to another galaxy. Queen made a career of creating such moments of ecstasy that persist through time decades after the initial recording. 

If things had played out differently, rather than become an iconic guitarist as part of the band, Brian May could’ve spent the last 50 years looking up to the stars for snippets of wonder.

May went to school to study space and was on his way to getting a Ph.D. in astronomy before the opportunity to chase his rock star dreams led him away from his education. May eventually returned to class to complete his doctorate.

Before Queen popped off, May was an aspiring astronomer

May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College London, graduating with an honor’s degree and an Associateship of the Royal College of Science award in physics. He began to study for a Ph.D. in astronomy at the same school in 1970, focusing on reflected light from interplanetary dust and its velocity in the plane of the Solar System.

That was the same year he joined Queen. Once the band began to earn some international acclaim, he dropped out of Imperial in 1974 – but not before co-authoring two research papers based on his experiences at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain. 

After becoming a venerated guitar player, we could all understand if May left his schoolwork left incomplete. But in 2006, he returned to Imperial College to finish what he started. May was fortunate in the fact that the topic of his thesis, the radial velocity of zodiacal light, was not the subject of much research in the intervening years, but still, he did the work. May finally graduated in 2008. (If you want to know more about May’s work, you can get a copy of his thesis on Imperial’s website .)

Last year, May appeared on an episode of “According to Google” on Radio X, an rock music station in Britain, to answer the most common questions asked on the search engine. When prompted to talk about his Ph.D., the musician was deeply satisfied with his accomplishment.  

“I’m very proud of it and it cost me in terms of effort and submerging my will to a certain extent, because the tough thing in doing a Ph.D. [is that] you have to be very humble because you have to do what someone is telling you to do and you’re constantly being examined and constantly being criticized … It was tough, but I’m so happy that I did it because I’m happy to be a doctor.” 

He put his otherworldly passion to the side to become an iconic guitar player

The legacy of Queen is an ironclad piece of pop music history, but the idolatry of Freddie Mercury sometimes diminishes the role of the other band members in Queen’s greatness, including May. His intelligence and creativity with the instrument were a crucial part of making the band’s songs such three-dimensional hits.

May did most of his studio work with the Red Special, an electric guitar he built with his father when he was 16 years old. With it, May was able to make sounds with his guitar that most people would not even imagine were possible. He was so convincing that early Queen albums came with a note that read: “No synthesizers were used on this album.” 

But May was more than just a guitar player. He also wrote many songs for the band, including “ We Will Rock You ,” “Fat Bottomed Girls,” and “I Want It All.” On the production side, he was Queen’s main arranger and composer, incorporating multi-part harmonies that combined beautifully with their arena rock ambitions. 

May has released two solo records in his career, Back to the Light in 1992 and Another World in 1998. He has also collaborated on two albums with English singer and actor Kerry Ellis, Acoustic by Candlelight and Golden Days. 

May co-wrote a couple of books about astrophysics

Queen’s Brian May Said the Guitar Community Underrated George Harrison

May has continued to pursue his interests in astrophysics while playing with Queen’s new lineup . 

He has co-written two books with fellow astrophysicists Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott: Bang!: The Complete History of the Universe and The Cosmic Tourist . May’s relationship with Moore also led to an asteroid being named after the artist. 1998 BM30 was named 52665 Brianmay in 2008. 

He hasn’t written any other books, but May continues to advocate for space exploration in different ways. In 2020, he was part of a team that used stereographic projection to represent asteroids in a peer-reviewed paper in the publication Nature Communications .

May is also on the advisory board of the NEO-MAPP (Near Earth Object Modeling and Payloads for Protection) project, an EU-funded organization focused on planetary defense and modeling different asteroid processes.

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• THE BIG IDEA

Meet the rock guitarist who helped NASA land on an asteroid

Brian May is the co-founder of the band Queen—and an astrophysicist. He talks to National Geographic about consulting on NASA missions and blending art with science.

As a working-class youth in London, Brian May first built his own telescope. Then he built his own electric guitar. Two days after earning a bachelor’s degree in physics, he was onstage with his band, opening for Pink Floyd. It was 1968.

Today May, 76, is known as one of the greatest guitarists in rock history. This month he’s back on the road with the latest incarnation of Queen, the legendary band he co-founded with Roger Taylor and the late Freddie Mercury. Also this month: publication day for May’s latest book, an atlas of the asteroid Bennu, featuring May’s stereoscopic photography .

I met May in 2015 when he was working with NASA’s New Horizons mission . He’s now a friend; we share a fascination with the stars (he earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics in 2007), as well as a deep and abiding love of animals (he’s an activist for animal welfare). I’ve been to more than a few of his concerts, often running into others backstage who are both Queen fans and space nerds (including a NASA official who once showed up with a copy of May’s doctoral thesis ).

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

NADIA DRAKE: I’m betting that many people who know you as a musician have no idea you’re Dr. May—that you earned a Ph.D. studying zodiacal dust, a cloud of rocky grains that fills interplanetary space in our solar system. Why did you choose that topic?

BRIAN MAY: I knew you were going to ask. I was doing my graduate work in infrared astronomy at Imperial College in the 1970s, and one of the professors had been doing spectroscopic studies of zodiacal dust. It had come to a standstill because most of the equipment didn’t work anymore. So they said, Would you like to take this over? Once I looked at it, I thought, This is fascinating. It was something few people had done.

What did you want to know about the dust?

Very simply, where it comes from and where it’s going. Everybody else was studying the light reflected by the zodiacal cloud, but we were looking at how that cloud moved, by tracking an absorption line in the sun’s spectrum, which is Doppler shifted because of the motions of the dust relative to Earth. We thought that a component of the dust ought to be the debris shed by comets, and a certain amount of it might be from asteroids. I had this crazy idea that a small component might be interstellar because the solar system is moving through space. But I was kind of dismissed as a crank, and my supervisor said, “Don’t put that in the thesis, because everyone’s gonna laugh at you.”

But you were right?

The funny thing is, I thought I could see an interstellar element that was flowing through the solar system. But I never published that part of the data—after all, there were big error bars on my measurements. Looking back on it, I kind of wish I had because we now know that interstellar stuff is coming through all the time. Notably ‘ Oumuamua , the interstellar object that zipped through in 2017. Now there’s a big lump of dust that sure didn’t come from inside our solar system—and there’s no knowing what we’re going to encounter next, is there?

You’ve moved on from dust and are now working a lot with asteroids and other small bodies in the solar system. Where does that interest come from?

That’s a passion, really. It connects to my interest in stereoscopic photography. All of the objects visited by uncrewed spacecraft lend themselves to 3D stereo images—for those, you need two different views of an object to make a stereo pair. And it is a very basic fact that everything in the solar system rotates. Which is fortunate, because rotation gives you the pair of views from slightly different angles that you need. I basically trawl the data from every space mission with a colleague of mine in Italy, and we find data to make 3D pictures.

We started to get friendly with some of the teams from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and once they saw what we were doing, the word spread to other missions. Our first great opportunity was New Horizons, which made history with its flyby of Pluto.

I remember running into you during the flyby in 2015. Such a fun time!

Watching that data come in was one of the greatest experiences of my life. We saw what Pluto looked like for the first time, and we got two different views: one just before the flyby and one that came in as the spacecraft was going by. I put a couple of those together and made the first 3D picture of Pluto.

I’ve done a lot of good stuff in my life—I’ve been very lucky—but that was one of the most thrilling moments I can remember: to suddenly see Pluto, which in my childhood was a white dot, in all its glorious detail in three dimensions. It was just a thrill beyond measure.

Now you’re working with the   OSIRIS-REx team , which sent a spacecraft to the asteroid   Bennu .

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That mission proved that stereo imagery isn’t just for fun; it can be useful too. Stereo can give you such an instinctive feel for terrain that it can help you choose a landing site. This was crucial at Bennu: The mission was to take a sample of the asteroid, so we were put to work making stereo pictures of every potential landing site. I think there were 24 of them. And we did it—we helped to choose the final site, and the samples were safely gathered.

What will we learn by studying this asteroid?

Asteroids are like time capsules from the early solar system. We can learn a lot about what this place was like 4.5 billion years ago by studying primordial material from Bennu.

They’re also a whole lot more important than people realized until recently. They’ve long been recognized as potential hazards . They’re also possible sources of minerals—people are talking about mining them. But what’s become more and more apparent is the role that asteroids must have played in setting up the Earth for us to be on it, for the biosphere to be here, by delivering water and organic molecules.

You suddenly realize that asteroids, as well as being the harbingers of death and destruction, must have played a crucial role in the creation of life on Earth. Then you develop a lot more respect for them.

What are the unanswered questions in astronomy, astrophysics, or planetary science that are the most compelling to you now?

A lot of things. I’m excited about this multiverse idea. It’s funny how these concepts start off as something which is crazy, and then everybody is talking about them as a very normal thing.

One of my favorite memories from your concerts is when special effects had you standing on an asteroid, surrounded by planets, riffing on Dvořák’s New World Symphony (photo at top).

I’m planning a new variation of that for the coming U.S. tour. I will be going further down that road. I love it. And those little planetoids around me are real objects; they’re not projections.

You’re at the center of your own planetary system! That’s typical of your approach to art and science: You mash up these fields. Why? And are they really so different from one another?

This is central to my life and my beliefs. I was told that I couldn’t do art and science as I progressed through school. And I was very resentful about that because I love them both. I feel like the rest of my life has been trying to prove them wrong. More and more and more, I’ve discovered that artistic thinking and scientific thinking are just different parts of the same thing. It’s a continuum. They’re inextricably linked. You have to have both sides to function at your full potential.

Creativity seems like another shared element there. To succeed in both fields, you must be willing to break the rules, to test new ideas, and ultimately to help people see the world in a different way.

Yeah, that’s right. I actually don’t think I had that talent as a Ph.D. student, or maybe I didn’t have enough confidence to apply it. When Queen started to move, when it looked like we could actually go out as a rock group, I was quite relieved to give up the Ph.D. I’d already written it up, I’d submitted it to my supervisor, and he’d rejected it and told me I had to go away and do more research.

I always thought science benefited from me going off and playing music for 30 years; I hope it’s also benefited from me coming back.

Are you excited about going back on tour?

I’m excited, but I’m also nervous. It’s a long time to be away from home, and these days I don’t find that so easy. But apart from that, it ought to be good to get out and do what we do one more time, right?

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