Freddie Mercury's legacy as one of the rock n' roll greats has been cemented on this earth, but just as the singer looked into the heavens above, his spirit will now live there as well. An asteroid is now being named after the late Queen singer in honor of his 70th birthday which would have been today, Sept. 5.
His name will be attached to Asteroid 17473, which was discovered in 1991, the same year that Mercury died. It will be renamed Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.
The announcement was made at Montreax Casino in Switzerland for a gather of 1,250 fans. Queen guitarist Brian May was on hand to give the news.
May said the honor marked "Freddie's outstanding influence in the world," according to the BBC.
He continued, "Freddie Mercury sang, 'I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky' - and now that is even more true than ever before."
The occasion was marked by a certificate, which detailed the asteroid and listed the achievements of Mercury, naming as one of the greatest rock singers of all time.
It is fitting that May would be the one to make the announcement. He is now Dr. Brian May after getting a PhD in Astrophysics from London's Imperial College.
Being the expert in the building, he was able to describe to the fans in attendance the asteroid.
"It's a dark object - rather like a cinder in space. 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," said May.
It sits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and is about two miles across.
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