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Music Space

An Asteroid Has Been Named After Freddie Mercury (vice.com) 58

An anonymous reader shares a Motherboard report: Freddie Mercury, frontman of Queen and transcendent being of pure performative joy and vitality, would have been 70 years old this Monday, September 5. To celebrate the occasion and honor Mercury's enormous impact on pop culture, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has officially changed the name of Asteroid 17473, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, to "Freddiemercury." It's a fitting tribute to the man who exuberantly sang that he was "a shooting star leaping through the sky" in the heart-thumping rock rager "Don't Stop Me Now." Queen's lead guitarist Brian May, who also happens to be an astrophysicist with a namesake asteroid of his own, announced the news to the band's fans via YouTube on Sunday. Mercury's asteroid is about three and a half kilometers across, and has an albedo of about 0.3, which means it reflects only about 30 percent of the Sun's light. "It's a dark object, like a cinder in space, as many of these asteroids are," May said. "It's just a dot of light, but it's a very special dot of light."
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An Asteroid Has Been Named After Freddie Mercury

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  • Too much (Score:5, Funny)

    by hawguy ( 1600213 ) on Monday September 05, 2016 @03:48PM (#52830853)

    He already had an entire planet named after him, why does he need an asteroid named after him too?

    • by tsa ( 15680 )

      Mercury doesn't actually contain much mercury so I guess they try again, and most of the rocks in our vicinity have been named already so they settled for this asteroid.

    • Planet Freddy ?
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Exactly, having two things named after him will just confuse the mail delivery no end.

  • by Creepy ( 93888 ) on Monday September 05, 2016 @03:48PM (#52830859) Journal

    Freddy Mercury's real name is Farrokh Bulsara. Brian May didn't have a stage name.

  • Do you think it matches his vibrato?
  • by tsa ( 15680 )

    It's about time. Hopefully the asteroid contains a lot of mercury.

  • Freddy Mercury was terrific, but he ruined mustaches for straight men everywhere, and so soon after Burt Reynolds made them acceptable again.

    All in all, I'd trade Burt Reynolds straight up to get Freddie Mercury back. People forget just how great he was. Watch this 1974 live Queen video to be reminded. And he only got better after that.

    https://youtu.be/T8Rfb1Jtmic [youtu.be]

    In 1992 Mercury was posthumously awarded the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, with a tribute concert held at Wembley

    • If your social circle lets the likes of FM and BR influence their impressions of your facial hair, you could find a better crowd to hang out with.

      • If your social circle lets the likes of FM and BR influence their impressions of your facial hair, you could find a better crowd to hang out with.

        I have a full and manly mustache, which is waxed every day. I also use lavender oil to keep it redolent.

        • If your social circle lets the likes of FM and BR influence their impressions of your facial hair, you could find a better crowd to hang out with.

          I have a full and manly mustache, which is waxed every day. I also use lavender oil to keep it redolent.

          If that's working for you, by all means keep it up,

    • I'd trade Magic Johnson for Freddy every day and twice on Sunday!!!
  • The Martians never agreed to this.

    • by jrumney ( 197329 )

      The Martians never agreed to this.

      It was all because of Brian May's gerrymandering to prevent Ziggy Stardust being chosen.

  • by Snufu ( 1049644 ) on Monday September 05, 2016 @09:24PM (#52831985)

    "Freddie, we named a planet after you. The one that is cheek to cheek with a star."
    Freddie: "Allright!!"
    "We also named an element after you. Also known as 'quicksilver'"
    Freddie: "How fitting!"
    "We also named a dark dead rock next to a bunch of other dead rocks after you."
    Freddie: "Oh...you...shouldn't have."

  • I wonder if it'll split into three parts, two smaller ones and a big one. Impacting with a **thump** **thump** **CRASH!**

  • ... I want to break free... we will rock you...don't stop me now....now I'm here.... breakthrough... another one bites the dust...we are the champions...

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