Physicist Tim Blais pays musical tribute to New Horizons, Pluto

Montreal scientist and musician Tim Blaisis celebrating the upcoming New Horizons flyby of Pluto with ana capellacoverUptown Funk by Bruno Marsthat breaks down the entire mission.

Blais posted the video on YouTube on Sunday. Like his previous musicalastronomy videos, it's a video mosaic showing him performing all of the song's tracks the vocals, beat-boxing and every bit of the big brass sound from the original song.

Blais has previously recorded musical astrophysics videos coveringQueen (Bohemian Gravity) and The Lion King (Surface of Light).

His latest comes as the New Horizons probe makes its approach on Pluto, beaming back the most detailed images yet taken ofthe dwarf planet.

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"I got the idea for the song twoweeks ago while attending the Convergence conference at Waterloo's Perimeter Institute," Blais said in an email.

"I'd been wanting to do a New Horizons video, and also an Uptown Funk cover, and suddenly just the words 'gonna visit Pluto'popped into my head and I knew I could make it work," he said.

The second verse of Outbound Probe breaks down the individual instruments carried on theNew Horizons spacecraft, with names like SWAP, PEPSSI, LORRI and Venetia.

Since graduating with a master's degree from McGill two years ago, Blais has been producingscience music videos full time. He says he's supported by "by ad revenues, mp3 and poster sales, and fan support" through Patreon.

Blais'svideo has beengetting thousands of views thanks to links from his alma mater and Germany'sMax Planck Society.