The spectacular astrophysicist and instrumentalist Brian May is co - authoring a three - dimensional atlas of the nigh - solid ground asteroid Bennu , an 85 - million - ton hunk of rock’n’roll revolve the Sun .
May is co - authoring the Koran with Dante Lauretta , a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and the primary investigator ofNASA and the university ’s OSIRIS - REx charge . May is also part of the missionary post squad .
OSIRIS - REx saw a modest spacecraft arrive at Bennu in 2018 and extract asample of the asteroid . The spacecraftleft Bennu in April 2021and is expected to return to Earth with the samples on September 24 . The asteroid is currently about 51 million miles ( 83 million kilometers ) from Earth .
Astrophysicist and author (oh yeah, and rocker) Brian May performing at Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.Photo: Alberto Pezzali - WPA Pool (Getty Images)
Asreported by the Guardian , May claim a hiatus from studying physics at Imperial College London to form the band Queen with Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor . May repay to schoolhouse in 2006 to completehis doctoral thesison interplanetary dust .
Besides being Queen ’s lead guitarist — a job May flourished in , producing rip - roaring solo and memorable melodies — May drop a line Sung dynasty for the band , including hits like “ We Will Rock You , ” “ I Want It All , ” and “ Hammer to Fall . ”
May commit his thesis in part to Queen , and noted that information collected by the InfraRed Astronomy Satellite ( IRAS ) while Queen was tour South America in 1983 greatly improved astronomers ’ understanding of the Zodiacal Dust Cloud .
An image of Bennu’s surface, taken by OSIRIS-REx after landing on the asteroid.Image:NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
afterwards in the thesis , May jokes that Qpr is tachygraphy for a radiation pressure coefficient , rather than Queen and Paul Rodgers , with whom the band performed between 2004 and 2009 .
Both May and Lauretta co - authored a2020 Nature Communications paperunpacking the establishment of top - shape asteroid like Bennu and Ryugu , the latter of which was try out by the Japanese space authority JAXA’sHayabusa2 mission .
The Good Book is style Bennu 3 - five hundred : Anatomy of an Asteroid andis being soldas “ the world ’s first complete ( and stereoscopic ) atlas of an asteroid . ”
A mosaic image of the top-shaped asteroid Bennu as seen by OSIRIS-REx.Image:NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
May has long had interest in stereoscopic photography , and recently published Stereoscopy Is undecomposed For You : life-time in 3 - D.
Asreported by Amateur Photographer , May lugged his own stereo camera on Queen tours , producing 3D images of the set ’s onstage and behind - the - scene moment . Now , the same technology is being hold to the far - out asteroid ; the print edition of the Bible will let in 120 illustration , 50 maps , and 80 stereoscopic shots of the object . May and Lauretta will also discuss the book and partake some of the 3D imagery of Bennu at London ’s Natural History Museum onJuly 31 .
Bennu is a nigh - earthly concern object ( NEO ) and a potentially risky asteroid , meaning that it has a nonzero chance of bear upon Earth . As such , Bennu is constantly being surveilled byNASA ’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies .
While the odds of an impingement are low-toned ( a 1 - in-1,750 shoot down through 2300 ) NASA scientist want to be prepared to champion the major planet should such an object take a distressful turn towards our satellite .
That was the breaker point ofNASA ’s twofold Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ) missionback in September , when the place agency doss a ballistic capsule into a little asteroid , modify its orbit . Thepromising mental test suggestsit may be potential to expend kinetic impactors as imply for defending Earth . New mental image of the DART side effect are still emerging ; newHubble Space Telescope images of the aftermath came out just last week .
If you ’ve seen enough of Bennu , you could rest easy have sex the wait for Bennu routine to arrive on Earth will be over presently . The recovery of asteroid samples is a singular exploit , and analysis of the jolting cloth make it on Earth this September could clue scientists into the shaping of asteroid , if not bigger questions like how our solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago .
More : NASA Refines Threat Posed by Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Bennu
101955 BennuHammerHayabusa2NASANear - Earth objectOSIRIS - RExQueen
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