Queen rocker earns doctorate

Queen guitarist Brian May has gained his doctorate in astronomy - 36 years after starting his thesis.

May - who abandoned his studies to pursue a music career - handed in the 48,000-word paper, called 'Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud', to London's Imperial College in July.

The musician was awarded a category two pass mark and will officially be handed his PhD from the college at the Royal Albert Hall next spring.

He admits he is looking forward to becoming Dr May, explaining: "I feel comfortable about using the title because I worked for this, and I'm going to be proud to call myself 'Doctor' from now on."