If you’re only a casual fan of the band Queen, you might not know that the group’s guitarist, Brian May, holds a PhD in astrophysics. He has even worked with NASA’s science teams on several occasions. On New Year’s Day, May released his first solo single in over twenty years, and in a marriage of his two passions, space and music, he dedicated the song to NASA’s ‘New Horizons’ space probe.
The song, sharing the name of ‘New Horizons’ with the probe, tells the story of the probe’s journey from Earth into interstellar space, before crossing paths with the mysterious mountain-sized space rock 2014 MU69, better known as “Ultima Thule.” Ultima Thule floats four billion miles from Earth, a distance “New Horizons” finished traveling on New Year’s Day at the same time as May’s song released. May was somewhat nervous about writing the song. In an interview with The New York Times, he said “I thought this is going to be hard, because I can’t think of anything that rhymes with Ultima Thule.”
At an official conference for the song’s release, May spoke about the probe’s mission. “Gradually it dawned on me that this mission is about human curiosity. It’s about the need of mankind to go out there an explore and discover what makes the universe tick and this has been going on since the dawn of time.”
