Before Queen, Brian May was an astrophysicist. He has held a life-long fascination with space and is now devoting more time promoting the study of the cosmos to others. He is a key figure behind Asteroid Day, a series of almost 100 events around the world.
“The aim is to ramp up public awareness and the awareness of governments to the fact that we are under threat from a meteor strike,” May told me during a visit, “It’s been made light of, and we’ve seen some great films, like Bruce Willis saving the day, but it is a very serious threat.”
A key aim of Asteroid Day is to lobby for a 100-fold increase in the detection rate of Near Earth Objects.
“This is a catastrophe that could be averted,” he said.
Watch the interview above, and see the Asteroid Day trailer, featuring Queen’s We Will Rock You below.
Stuart Clark is the author of The Unknown Universe (Head of Zeus). Find him on Twitter.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion