WE, WILL ROCK YOU! Ck this clip from @NewHorizons2015 science team meeting when I thanked Brian May for his many contributions. Wait for my nerdy team's team's priceless response! Thanks to @tsplanets for this video! #NASA #Space #SCIENCE #UltimateThule #UltimaFlyby RTs please! pic.twitter.com/lYGFdhthX4
— Alan Stern (@AlanStern) January 4, 2019
On Tuesday, Queen guitarist Brian May released “New Horizons” his first single in 20 years to coincide with the flyby earlier this week of Ultima Thule by NASA’s New Horizons mission. It turns out that May, who has a PhD in astrophysics, has been involved with the mission since 2015, when he analysed images of Pluto that were taken by the spacecraft.
May talks about his involvement in New Horizons in this interview in Time and Alan Stern – principle investigator for New Horizons – has just posted a video from 2015 of May being saluted by the team with an impromptu rendition of the claps and stomps that open “We will rock you”. You can watch that tribute in the tweet above.
The science writer Philip Ball is a regular freelance contributor to Physics World and his book Beyond Weird was our Book of the Year for 2018. This evening Ball could add another feather to his cap by winning the Christmas edition of the University Challenge television quiz. Ball is on the University of Bristol team (he is a graduate), which is up against Peterhouse Cambridge. Let’s hope that quizmaster Jeremy Paxman has a few physics starter questions. For those of you who can watch the BBC, the fun begins at 20:00 this evening.
