Brian May became famous as a guitarist of Queen but his role as a scientist is not as well known. The British musician earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysics at Imperial College in 2007, completing a thesis that he had abandoned three decades earlier when he joined the group of Freddie Mercury . Since then, his work and research collaborations have become increasingly important. Now, as explained by Japan Aerospace Agency (JAXA) May supported the mission Hayabusa 2 in the exploration of the asteroid Ryugu . Queen 's guitarist created the first 3D image of the asteroid Ryugu

The help of Brian May consisted in the realization of a stereographic image of the asteroid of Ryugu which allows us to contemplate this three-dimensional celestial body recreating the illusion of depth. Queen's own guitarist describes herself in her web page as a reference authority in the world of stereoscopy . Through photography one can see the asteroid in 3D for the first time and contemplate its irregular shape, buried by large craters.

May contacted the members of the Hayabusa 2 mission to propose the realization of this 3D image, something that I had done in the past with other celestial objects. With the help of Dr. Patrick Michel, the Observatory of Costa Azul (France) and other members of the team, Queen's guitarist created the photo "quickly" and he made it known in his Instagram profile. Later, the researcher Yoshiro Yamada superimposed the three-dimensional clichés created by Brian May to facilitate their observation by all who were interested

This is not the first time the musician is interested in this type of space missions. In fact, Brian May is part of the initiative Asteroid Day promoted by the United Nations to raise awareness about the need to study these rocky objects and promote global security. On June 30, the guitarist himself gave a lecture in Luxembourg on the risks of asteroids. Brian May is also a scientific collaborator of NASA's New Horizons mission. This probe, after exploring Pluto, is en route to Ultima Thule the most distant star that mankind has studied in its history.