Freddie Mercury, the late Queen singer, gets asteroid named after him to commemorate his birthday

Legendary vocalist Freddie Mercury was honored Monday on what would have been the Queen singer’s 70th birthday with a truly out-of-this-world tribute: a 2-mile-long asteroid currently orbiting around the sun at a speed of nearly 50,000 miles-per-hour.

“I’m happy to be able to announce that the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center has today designated Asteroid 17473, discovered 1991, in Freddie’s name, timed to honor his 70th birthday,” Guitar hero and Queen co-founder Brian May said in a YouTube video uploaded Monday. “Henceforth, this object will be known as Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.”

The effort to name the asteroid in honor of Mercury was spearheaded by Mr. May with the help of NASA astronomer Joel Parker and is now officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Minor Planet Center, the guitarist said Monday.

The dedication was first announced at an event in Montreux on Sunday where around 1,250 fans had gathered to remember Mercury, Queen said in a statement. 

On its website, the the Minor Planet Center said Mercury is regarded as “one of the greatest rock singers of all time.” The dedication serves to recognize the singer’s “outstanding influence in the world,” said Mr. May, who is also an astrophysicist.

Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, recorded more than a dozen studio albums with Queen prior to his death in November 1991 due to complications from AIDS. Belgian astronomer Henri Debehogne discovered the asteroid now named in the singer’s honor eight months earlier.

“Freddie’s Asteroid,” as the guitarist called it, is located in the main Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is invisible to the naked eye.

“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,” Mr. May said.

“It’s just a dot of light, but it’s a very special dot of light and maybe one day we’ll get there,” he added.

Mr. May, 69, was attempting to earn his doctorate from London’s Imperial College when he dropped out in 1974 to concentrate on performing with Queen. He graduated with a Ph.D. in astrophysics in 2007. He also has an asteroid named after him.