So, they called in a ringer—famed Queen guitarist Brian May. In addition to shredding guitars, selling out stadiums across the world, and being knighted by the King of England, May is a trained astrophysicist.
May’s focus is stereoscopy—the practice of combining two flat images to make a 3D image. May and his colleague Claudia Manzoni melded multiple images of Bennu taken at slightly different angles to transform the asteroid into an eye-popping 3D object. Potential sampling sites looked flat in regular images, “but then Brian would send the stereo, and you’re like, ‘Woah, look at that, that’s crazy—we could never get into there,’” says Lauretta.
NASA's Plot to Capture an Asteroid and Save Humanity Almost Failedhttps://www.popularmechanics.com/space/solar-system/a62351805/nasa-asteroid-capture/