Rock Star/Astrophysicist Dr. Brian May Goes Backstage With New Horizons

[n2doc]

Queen lead guitarist and astrophysicist Dr. Brian May and NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden discuss the New Horizons mission prior to a science briefing on July 17, 2015 in Washington, D.C. Dr. May described the long weekend with the New Horizons team as “the best birthday gift ever.”
Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky


As lead guitarist for the legendary rock group Queen, Brian May has spent an entire career in the spotlight. But last week, May traded the music for his other passion – science – and spent some time backstage with the New Horizons team as it dived into the first results from the Pluto flyby.

May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics, was awed by the opportunity to meet the team and sift through images and other Pluto system data in real time. And he’ll have other opportunities down the road, as mission principal investigator Alan Stern added May as a New Horizons science collaborator.

Dr. Brian May blogs about his experience with the New Horizons team and shares his stereo images of Pluto in this July 20, 2015 entry from his website:

"***Mon 20 July 15***

FIRST HIGH QUALITY REAL STEREO IMAGE OF PLUTO

First high quality REAL stereo image of Pluto.

I had an unforgettable 3 days with the amazing New Horizons team. I’m still 'coming down’. Alan Stern, leader of the Science Team at APL in Laurel, Maryland, personally made sure I was treated like one of the family, as a collaborator, and I felt privileged to the nth degree.

I was, of course, as always, obsessed with finding stereoscopic opportunities while I was there, and the Gods of the Underworld must have been with me, because I was there when the first 2 by 2 mosaic full-planet picture was downloaded from the probe, and assembled into exactly the required highish res partner to the iconic ‘last-look’ photo which preceded the final fly-by. Baseline must be a few hundred thousand miles, but I’ll need to check that. Of course the New Horizons guys were already doing serious science on this image as it arrived, but I was able to assemble the two images to make the most satisfying stereo view I can ever remember making. I got some help making some prints on site, so I was able to show this 3-D to the entire team through the lenses of some OWLS I took over.

more

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/rock-starastrophysicist-dr-brian-may-goes-backstage-with-new-horizons

[Mnemosyne]

1. He is also one of the most overlooked guitar greats. Cool guy! nt