New Horizon's Ultima Thule flyby: at 12:02AM on 1/1, Brian May, PhD & member of some band will be...

[Princess Turandot]

releasing a song he wrote for the event, from NH Mission Control. It is his first solo release in 20 years:

From the press release: Brian’s “New Horizons” track (Ultima Thule mix) celebrates the whole 12-year Journey of New Horizons probe, and includes a message from Stephen Hawking congratulating the team on their successful rendezvous with Pluto three years ago. In a broader sense, the song is an anthem to Mankind’s spirit of exploration, reaching ever further out into the Universe.

“New Horizons” will have its global premiere, broadcast live on January 1 at 12.02am EST (5.02am GMT) from the New Horizons control Center in Maryland, USA, at the moment when the historic Ultima Thule encounter is confirmed.

Says Brian:

“This project has energised me in a new way. For me it’s been an exciting challenge to bring two sides of my life together - Astronomy and Music. It was Alan Stern, the Project Instigator of this amazing NASA Mission, who threw down the glove last May. He asked if I could come up with a theme for Ultima Thule which could be played as the NH probe reached this new destination. I was inspired by the idea that this is the furthest that the Hand of Man has ever reached – it will be by far the most distant object we have ever seen at close quarters, through the images which the space craft will beam back to Earth. To me it epitomises the human spirit’s unceasing desire to understand the Universe we inhabit. Everyone who has devoted so much energy to this mission since its launch in January 2006 will be feeling they are actually INSIDE that small but intrepid vehicle - only about the size of a grand piano - as it pulls off another spectacular close encounter. And through the vehicle’s ‘eyes’ we will begin to learn, for the very first time, what a Kuiper Belt Object is made of. And pick up precious clues about how our solar system was born.”

For those who may not know this, May had received an undergraduate degree in physics and was four years into his doctoral studies in astrophysics, when that band, led by a singer named after a planet, reached stardom, causing him to withdraw without completing his thesis work. Decades later, he did so, attaining his PhD from the Imperial College London in 2008. (More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May#Scientific_career)

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New Horizons at Ultima Thule Schedule/Where to watch: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Where-to-Watch.php

[mbusby]

1. Brian May....

...was (is) the lead guitarist for Queen.