Brian May is working to save the world from an asteroid attack.

The 67-year-old lead guitarist of Queen is helping scientists to raise as much as £160 million to build an orbiting space observatory, which they believe will help shelter the world from destructive asteroids.

Brian - a board member of the campaign group Asteroid Day - has joined astronauts and astronomers in throwing his support behind the project, which is designed to raise money and make the public more aware of the threat.

To this end, he has created the soundtrack to Asteroid Day, which will officially be recognised on June 30, the date when a small asteroid or comet exploded above Siberia in 1908, causing the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history.

Previously speaking about the threat of asteroids, Brian said: ''The more we learn about asteroid impacts, the clearer it becomes that the human race has been living on borrowed time.

''We are currently aware of less than 1 percent of objects comparable to the one that impacted [in Siberia], and nobody knows when the next big one will hit. And it takes just one.''