Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality...
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is loved by millions around the world. Being Queen's number one hit, it is a timeless classic. Queen, a rock band from the 1970s, has had many hits throughout their several years of fame, including "We Will Rock You," "Under Pressure" with David Bowie, "Somebody to Love," and so many more, almost all of which are still popular to this day. Freddie Mercury, Queen's lead singer, is undoubtedly the most popular member of the band. However, not much is known about the other members of the band. This includes Brain May, who happens to be the band's lead guitar player and an accomplished astrophysicist.
Before Brian May joined the band Queen, he was studying physics and mathematics at Imperial College, all while keeping an interest in music (Eicher, 2012). By the time May graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics, he had been in several bands, playing the guitar him and his father made from scratch (Eicher, 2012). Two days after he graduated from college, his band at the time, Smile, opened for Pink Floyd (Eicher, 2012). His band was slowly gaining more popularity.
When May wasn’t practicing or performing with his band, he was conducting research with a professor at Imperial College, Jim Ring (Eicher, 2012). Their research was based around dust particles in the zodiacal dust cloud. They were researching the chemical compositions and the motion of the particles. Ring and May made velocity and positional maps of the dust, tracking the movements of the particles (May, 2007). They used data due to the Doppler shifts of the particles, and the spectra and wavelength shifts to create maps of the dust and track the velocities (May, 2007). They were particularly interested in looking at the dust particles within the zodiacal light, which is “a cone of eerie light at the sunrise or sunset point on the horizon.” (Byrd & McClure, 2020). A picture of the zodiacal light is shown below.
The Zodiacal Light by Ben Coffman (2014)
Then, in 1969, the band was introduced to Freddie Bulsara, later known as Freddie Mercury (Eicher, 2012). He joined the band and the band then changed its name to Queen. As Queen traveled and played gigs all over London, May found that he had less and less time to work on his research. He occasionally traveled back to the College to work on his research and his Ph.D., but as the band gained popularity, he didn’t have the time. May, while on tour with his band, would keep an eye out for clear skies and became something like a “tour guide” (Eicher, 2012) of the night sky to other musicians. Brian May went on to write several hits for Queen, including “We Will Rock You,” “Fat Bottomed Girls,” and “Who Wants to Live Forever.” (Eicher, 2012).
Then, after Freddie Mercury passed away, Brian slowly made his way back to astronomy. A friend of May’s, Sir Patrick Moore, convinced him to finish his Ph.D. on the motions of dust particles in the zodiacal dust cloud (Eicher, 2012). Finally, in 2007, he finished his dissertation, A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, and earned his Ph.D. in the subject (Eicher, 2012). He discovered that the Zodiacal cloud that was responsible for the Zodiacal light was not in orbit around the Sun (May, 2007). However, he also came to the conclusion that there were many other factors that needed to be considered in order to determine the cause of the Zodiacal light, such as where the dust came from and the variations of the motions of the dust particles over time (May, 2007). Since then, he has spent time with NASA on the New Horizons team (Talbert, 2015) and published several books on astrophysics. Today, he continues his love for astronomy and is a part of several charities that advocate for the welfare of animals.
A link to Brian May’s Thesis:
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/295744.pdf
References
Byrd, D., & McClure, B. (2020, September 17). Zodiacal light: All you need to know. Retrieved September 26, 2020, from https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-zodiacal-light-or-false-dawn
Coffman, B. (2014, March 3). The Zodiacal Light [Photograph]. Https://Www.Facebook.Com/BenCoffmanPhotography/Photos/a.397061537022160/658837437511234. https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-zodiacal-light-or-false-dawn
Eicher, D. (2012, July 23). Brian May: A life in science and music - the full story. Retrieved September 26, 2020, from https://astronomy.com/magazine/2012/07/brian-may---a-life-in-science-and-music---the-full-story
May, B. H. (2007). A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-77706-1
Talbert, T. (2015, July 21). Rock Star/Astrophysicist Dr. Brian May Backstage With New Horizons. Retrieved September 26, 2020, from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/rock-starastrophysicist-dr-brian-may-goes-backstage-with-new-horizons
I found it super interesting when I learned about how Brian May was an astrophysicist. I love Queen, so when I found this out earlier, I was even more obsessed. However, I didn't know that after Freddie had passed away, that he went back to astronomy to finish up his degree and work with NASA. Very interesting!
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