By Tim Binnall
The second crop circle of 2022 recently appeared in England and wound up capturing the imagination of legendary Queen guitarist Brian May, who spotted the oddity on the ground while flying home from a rehearsal. The curious formation was reportedly found over the weekend in the hamlet of Hippenscombe and features a fairly complex design (which can be seen in the drone video above) consisting of a large octagon with what appear to be saw blades facing inward encircling four spheres that themselves are orbiting a central circle that sports a small patch of untouched barley standing out amidst the otherwise compressed vegetation.
As is often the case, crop circle researchers have offered an array of somewhat arcane explanations for what the design might be meant to convey with one observer suggesting the saw blades refer to harvesting and the spheres represent various celestial bodies. However, in this instance, armchair investigators were not the only people who found themselves pondering the puzzling formation. In a somewhat surprising meeting between the worlds of pop culture and the paranormal, legendary guitarist Brian May of the iconic band Queen took to his Instagram account on Tuesday evening and shared photos of the newfound crop circle.
"Notice anything unusual here in the English countryside," he asked in the post (seen below) and then explained that "I never spotted a crop circle myself before. So probably always a bit skeptical about them. But yesterday, flying back from our production rehearsal space - flying over a location not far from Marlborough - there was this." In the social media post, seen below, May shared several photos of the formation from Hippenscombe as well as "a rudimentary stereo movie." The musician then asked his followers for their thoughts on the strange scene, offering a variety of possibilities that included "intriguing works of mathematical art," a hoax, and, of course, the proverbial extraterrestrial hypothesis.