Freddie Mercury gets asteroid named after him on 70th birthday

An asteroid has been named after Legendary singer Freddie Mercury to mark his 70th birthday

London: Legendary singer Freddie Mercury now has an asteroid named after him. To mark the Queens singer's 70th birthday the International Astronomical Union has named an asteroid "17473 Freddiemercury".

In a video uploaded to the band's YouTube page, Queen guitarist Brian May revealed the name honouring the famous frontman.

"Where's Freddie's asteroid? Well, it's out in the main asteroid belt, beyond the orbit of Mars and inside the orbit of Jupiter. It's about three and a half kilometers across. It has an albido of point three, which means it only reflects about a third of the light shone onto it, so it's a very dark object.

"From the Earth it shines at the 14th magnitude which means you have to have a pretty decent telescope to see it. It's just a dot of light but it's a very special dot of light," May said.

He also showed the certificate dedicating the asteroid to his late bandmate. To honour Mercury on his birthday a Blue Plaque was put outside his first UK home.