Asteroid Named for Rock Star Freddie Mercury

Astrophysicist Brian May, who in a previous life was the lead guitarist for legendary 1970s British rock band Queens, released a YouTube video on Sunday announcing that an asteroid has been named after Queens' singer Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991.

"You have to have a pretty decent telescope to see it. It's just a dot of light but it's a very special dot of light, and maybe one day we'll get there," May said in the video.

The asteroid, previously known as Asteroid 17473, is about 2 miles in diameter and orbits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The asteroid's new designation was made by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, located at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.

The asteroid was discovered in 1991 and was renamed on Sunday, Sept. 4, which would have been Mercury's 70th birthday. Word of the asteroid's new name was reported on Tuesday in The New York Times.

From Discovery News