Freddie Mercury has an asteroid named after him

Freddie Mercury has had an asteroid named after him.

Asteroid17473 was discovered in 1991, the year of Mercury’s death. Now it has named after Mercury to mark what would have been the singer’s 70th birthday.

The honour was granted by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre.

Brian May announced the honour during a party in Switzerland in honour of Mercury.

“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 honour his 70th birthday,” said May.

“Henceforth this object will be known as Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury. This announcement is to recognise Freddie’s outstanding influence in the world.

“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.”

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