--- title: Astronomers Name Newly Discovered Galaxy After Cristiano Ronaldo description: The soccer fans call it CR7. canonical: https://time.com/3925649/cristiano-ronaldo-galaxy-astronomy/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-18T00:16:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:18:30.488Z article:section: Science og:title: Astronomers Name Newly Discovered Galaxy After Cristiano Ronaldo og:description: It was described as “an exceptionally rare object" og:url: https://time.com/3925649/cristiano-ronaldo-galaxy-astronomy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65c69df6334a2c4f/6988551bcd1bba846d6fbdf8/christiano-ronaldo.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Portugal player Cristiano Ronaldo gestures during the UEFA EURO 2016 Qualifying - Group I soccer match against Armenia held at Republican Stadium in Yerevan, Armenia on June 13, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Astronomers Name Newly Discovered Galaxy After Cristiano Ronaldo twitter:description: It was described as “an exceptionally rare object" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65c69df6334a2c4f/6988551bcd1bba846d6fbdf8/christiano-ronaldo.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Astronomers Name Newly Discovered Galaxy After Cristiano Ronaldo  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 18, 2015 12:16 AM UTC  Portugal player Cristiano Ronaldo gestures during the UEFA EURO 2016 Qualifying - Group I soccer match against Armenia held at Republican Stadium in Yerevan, Armenia on June 13, 2015. Portugal player Cristiano Ronaldo gestures during the UEFA EURO 2016 Qualifying - Group I soccer match against Armenia held at Republican Stadium in Yerevan, Armenia on June 13, 2015.Hugo Delgado—EPA  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 18, 2015 12:16 AM UTC It pays to be an astronomer when you can [name](http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1524/) newly discovered galaxies after your favorite sports heroes. A group of scientists has dubbed a recently discovered galaxy COSMOS Redshift 7, or CR7\. That’s also the nickname of Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, who wears No. 7 on his jersey, and the inspiration for a Nike cleat dubbed CR7\. The lead astronomer, who hails from Ronaldo’s native Portugal, cited Ronaldo as inspiration for the galaxy’s name, the European Southern Observatory [said](http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1524/) in a statement on Wednesday. It was described as “an exceptionally rare object, by far the brightest galaxy ever observed at this stage in the Universe.” The name is also a measure of the galaxy’s place in terms of cosmic time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3925649/cristiano-ronaldo-galaxy-astronomy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3925649/cristiano-ronaldo-galaxy-astronomy/"},"headline":"Astronomers Name Newly Discovered Galaxy After Cristiano Ronaldo","datePublished":"2015-06-18T00:16:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:18:30.488Z","description":"The soccer fans call it CR7","url":"https://time.com/3925649/cristiano-ronaldo-galaxy-astronomy/","keywords":["Space","Soccer","Cristiano Ronaldo"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65c69df6334a2c4f/6988551bcd1bba846d6fbdf8/christiano-ronaldo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65c69df6334a2c4f/6988551bcd1bba846d6fbdf8/christiano-ronaldo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Portugal player Cristiano Ronaldo gestures during the UEFA EURO 2016 Qualifying - Group I soccer match against Armenia held at Republican Stadium in Yerevan, Armenia on June 13, 2015.","caption":"Portugal player Cristiano Ronaldo gestures during the UEFA EURO 2016 Qualifying - Group I soccer match against Armenia held at Republican Stadium in Yerevan, Armenia on June 13, 2015.","creditText":"Hugo Delgado—EPA","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/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3925649/cristiano-ronaldo-galaxy-astronomy/","name":"Astronomers Name Newly Discovered Galaxy After Cristiano Ronaldo"}}]}] ```