--- description: An asteroid has been named after the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in honor of what would be his 70th birthday, said Brian May. title: Queen's Freddie Mercury Has Asteroid Named After Him image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde3839d0b7901118/6988a4c8fb4eacf41688efb6/freddie-mercury-queen-asteroid.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [celebrities](/tag/celebrities/) ## celebrities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Queen's Freddie Mercury Has An Asteroid Named After Him by [Tara John](/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 5, 2016 3:51 PM CUT  Musician John Deacon and Freddie Mercury (C)(1946 - 1991) of British rock band Queen in concert, 1980. Musician John Deacon and Freddie Mercury (C)(1946 - 1991) of British rock band Queen in concert, 1980.Michael Montfort—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images by [Tara John](/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 5, 2016 3:51 PM CUT An asteroid has been named after the late Queen [singer](http://time.com/4300153/freddie-mercury-voice-study/ "undefined") Freddie Mercury in honor of what would be his [70th birthday](http://time.com/4300153/freddie-mercury-voice-study/ "undefined"), said the band’s guitarist Brian May. May announced on Sept 4, a day before Mercury’s birthday, that the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center designated an astroid with the name ‘Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.’ In a statement and video [published on his blog](http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbsep16a.html#05 "undefined"), May says the asteroid honors “Freddie’s outstanding influence in the world.” It was discovered in 1991, the same year Mercury died, is around 2 miles across and was found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Joel Parker of the Southwest Research Institute, who issued the certificate of designation, said: “Singer Freddie Mercury sang, ‘I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky’ – and now that is even more true than ever before. ” In the video, May who has a doctorate from the Imperial College in London in astrophysics, said ‘Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury’ is “just a dot of light, but it’s a very special dot of light.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4479225/freddie-mercury-asteroid-brian-may-queen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4479225/freddie-mercury-asteroid-brian-may-queen/"},"headline":"Queen's Freddie Mercury Has An Asteroid Named After Him","datePublished":"2016-09-05T15:51:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:24:01.103Z","description":"It was in honor of what would be his 70th birthday on Sept. 5","url":"https://time.com/4479225/freddie-mercury-asteroid-brian-may-queen/","keywords":["celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde3839d0b7901118/6988a4c8fb4eacf41688efb6/freddie-mercury-queen-asteroid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde3839d0b7901118/6988a4c8fb4eacf41688efb6/freddie-mercury-queen-asteroid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Musician John Deacon and Freddie Mercury (C)(1946 - 1991) of British rock band Queen in concert, 1980.","caption":"Musician John Deacon and Freddie Mercury (C)(1946 - 1991) of British rock band Queen in concert, 1980.","creditText":"Michael Montfort—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4479225/freddie-mercury-asteroid-brian-may-queen/","name":"Queen's Freddie Mercury Has An Asteroid Named After Him"}}]}] ```