Celebrations to mark Freddie Mercury’s 70th birthday received a cosmic boost on Sunday night as Brian May, Queen’s lead guitarist, announced that an asteroid nearly half a billion kilometres away had been named after the late singer. “In celebration of his 70th birthday, an asteroid has been named Freddiemercury in honor of the charismatic singer for the band Queen.”

Asteroid names are governed by the International Astronomical Union and published by the Minor Planet Center. In a move that links one of the most dazzling stars in history to one of the darker rocks in the solar system the International Astronomical Union confirmed that asteroid 17473, a 3.5km-wide ball of black rubble on the other side of Mars, shall henceforth be known as “Freddiemercury”

May, who has a PhD in astrophysics and an asteroid named after him already, revealed the name by video message to more than 1200 guests at the “Freddie for a Day” party at the Montreux Casino on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. “We have a nice certificate of ‘adoption’ issued by the International Astronomical Union and the Minor Planet Center, which says ‘This name is in honor of Freddie Mercury, with the following citation:

“Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara, 1946-1991) was a British songwriter, and the lead singer for the legendary rock group Queen. May says the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre has designated an asteroid discovered in 1991, the year of Mercury’s death, as “Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.”

May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from Imperial College, London, says the newly named asteroid is “just a dot of light, but it’s a very special dot of light” and recognizes Mercury’s musical and performing talents. “Viewed from the Earth it is more than 10,000 times fainter than you can see by eye, so you need a fair-sized telescope to see it and that’s why it wasn’t discovered until 1991.”

Issuing the Certificate of Designation, Joel Parker of the Southwest Research Institute, said: “Singer Freddie Mercury sang, ‘I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky’ – and now that is even more true than ever before.
An asteroid is named in honour of Freddie Mercury on what would have been his 70th birthday.