Mercury, born September 5, 1946, wrote and performed hits including Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are The Champions with Queen, releasing over a dozen studio albums between 1973 and 1991. Freddie Mercury was one of the pioneers of rock music. Mercury died in November of 1991, the same time that Belgian astronomer Henri Debehogne discovered the asteroid.
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He wrote and performed hits including “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are The Champions” with Queen, releasing over a dozen studio albums between 1973 and 1991.
“Space rocks are often named after scientists or its discoverer but in celebration of Freddie Mercury’s 70th birthday, a “rockstar” asteroid will be named after him and it will be called ‘Freddiemercury”. “This is just a point of light, but it is a very special point of light”.
That’s how Queen guitarist Brian May describes the asteroid named for his late friend and bandmate Freddie Mercury. May is also the co-founder of Asteroid Day, a campaign that aims to provide the public with knowledge about asteroid threat and the solutions within reach.
The asteroid in question was discovered in 1991 and was given the provisional designation “1991 FM3”.
It has been observed and its position and orbit measured over 1,100 times, and it was given the number 17473.
The announcement came as a tribute to Mercury’s birthday.
According to May, Freddie’s asteroid is about 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) in diameter.
“It’s a dark object – rather like a cinder in space”.
Issuing the certificate of designation, Joel Parker of the Southwest Research Institute in the U.S. said the asteroid was a celebration for a “charismatic singer”.
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Twenty-five years after his death, Freddie Mercury is now a “shooting star leaping into the sky, like a tiger defying the laws of gravity”.
