Freddie Mercury has asteroid named in his honour to mark 70th birthday

The asteroid was discovered in 1991, the same year that Mercury died
Legendary: Freddie Mercury performing on stage
Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty
Emma Powell5 September 2016
The Weekender

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Freddie Mercury has had an asteroid named after him to mark what would be his 70th birthday.

Asteroid 17473 - which was discovered in 1991, the same year that Mercury died - has been renamed Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury to honour the late Queen frontman.

It is in the main Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is around 3.5km across. When viewed from the Earth it is more than 10,000 times fainter than you can see by eye.

Brian May announced the news via a video message to a gathering of 1,250 fans at Montreux Casino in Switzerland for the Freddie For A Day 70th birthday party, and told fans that his bandmate would have been “happy” with the honour.

“Happy birthday Freddie,” he said. “Thank you all you folks who have come here to celebrate the FFAD and to honour Freddie in this way, keeping his memory alive. I’m sure he would be very happy to see all of this.”

The certificate was issued by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Minor Planet Centre.

Joel Parker of the Southwest Research Institute said: "Freddie Mercury sang, 'I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky' - and now that is even more true than ever before.

"But even if you can't see Freddie Mercury leaping through the sky, you can be sure he's there - 'floating around in ecstasy', as he might sing - for millennia to come."

The asteroid naming comes days after May unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque at Mercury’s childhood home in Feltham, west London.

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