Sunday, August 03, 2008

Brian May's PhD Thesis

It appears that Brian May's PhD thesis has been published. Without first-hand access to it, all I can go by is news reports such as this one to describe what it is.

Entitled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, his thesis analyses what happens to the dust particles left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. The dust is also formed by collisions between asteroids and comets.

An abstract summing up of the work puts it in more academic terms, stating: “The aim was to achieve the first systematic mapping of the Magnesium I absorption line in the night sky.”


Who knows, maybe all the press coverage on this might spark an interest in physics and astronomy, making them "cool" subject to learn.

Zz.

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