We will space rock you: Asteroid named after Queen’s Freddie Mercury

Is this the real life? Is this just astronomy?

Read the whole story

 

[sheepless]

We have 23 years to organise a manned mission.

In the year of '39 assembled here the Volunteers
In the days when lands were few
Here the ship sailed out into the blue and sunny morn
The sweetest sight ever seen.

 

[raxx7]

Bah, Joe Strummer has a deep sea snail named after him: Alviniconcha strummeri.
That's hard core.

 

[PhilipStorry]

Well, there was only one song they could have used...

But it still got me when they did. It certainly gave me some elated giggles...

 

[iPirateEverything]

He is the champion,
he is theee champiiiion,
noooo time for losers coz
heeee is the champiooooon, my friend!

 

[Deleted member 192806]

Now all we need to do is send someone out there to carve his initials on that "rock".

 

[ChaosEngine]

The subtitle for this article is pure win.

 

[LenP]

Indeed, May is a keen asteroid aficionado

Well, Dr. May does have a PhD in astrophysics.

 

[issor]

Is this the real life? Is this just astronomy?

Any way the solar wind blows, doesn't really matter to me.

 

[koolraap]

It's a miracle, or maybe a kind of magic, there was no innuendo in the article how the rock was made in [the] heavens.

 

[MaxArt]

LenP[/url]":3bl00dsq]

Indeed, May is a keen asteroid aficionado

Well, Dr. May does have a PhD in astrophysics.

And after he more or less concluded his career as a rock star, he went back to his studies and actually published scientific papers.
A great musician (everybody rightfully remember Freddie, but May had maybe the most influential role in the musical history of Queen) and a great personality all around.

(On a side note, Queen has been one of the most educated bands of all time, with all the four members with a high education degree.)

 

[Alan H.]

Ahem. "Is this astronomy".

 

[Azethoth666]

Is this the real life? Is this just astronomy?

Caught in an orbit,
No escape from the gravity.
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,

 

[Azethoth666]

iPirateEverything[/url]":2ockxq0t]He is the champion,
he is theee champiiiion,
noooo time for losers coz
heeee is the champiooooon, my friend!

Ack, wrong song. We are doing bohemian rhapsody.

 

[WaveRunner]

For some people it's the Beatles, for me it's definitely Queen that defines what popular music is.

 

[Doubter]

Azethoth666[/url]":3t877mxs]

Is this the real life? Is this just astronomy?

Caught in an orbit,
No escape from the gravity.
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,

I'm just a poor boy, I can't say syzygy
Reflected light means albedo
The Big Bang left an afterglow
When the solar wind blows it doesn't really matter to me, to meeeee....

 

[Schwanz]

Doesn't he already have a whole planet?

 

[qrwteyrutiyoup]

Name the song...

Spoiler

Edit: added spoiler tag

 

[tkioz]

In hundreds of years when someone starts to mine this thing they are going to look at it and wonder who Fred from Mercury was and why they named it after him.

 

[BadSuperblock]

Queen guitar hero/astrophysicist Brian May, backed by the International Astronomical Union

"...galileo
GALILEO
galileo
GALILEO..."

 

[purple flower]

Very nice, very nice indeed. For me Queen certainly is one of The Better Bands.

And the comments thus far brought a big smile to my face. It would be fun if someone actually made a bohemianrhapsodycover from these lyricsideas

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Chris Lintott, professor of astrophysics at Oxford and presenter of The Sky at Night told the Guardian. "Pleasingly, it's on a slightly eccentric orbit about the sun, just as the man himself was."

I'm reminded of the quote from Arthur C Clarke: "I have an asteroid named after me. Isaac Asimov's got one too. It's smaller and more eccentric."

 

[budgieman]

Actually...I'm sorry to say you are all wrong....The best song for this is "Don't Stop Me Now" which inlcudes the lines:

I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity

and

I'm burnin' through the sky yeah
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I'm trav'ling at the speed of light

 

[budgieman]

I don't see why you would bother naming an asteroid after him when he already has a planet named after him.

 

[sheepless]

tkioz[/url]":35z3radt]In hundreds of years when someone starts to mine this thing they are going to look at it and wonder who Fred from Mercury was and why they named it after him.

Nah. In hundreds of years, people will say "Earth? Oh, isn't that the place Freddy Mercury was from?"

 

[Wheaty73]

Better hope it doesn't get knocked out of orbit. We don't want a Hammer (of the Gods) to Fall.

/coat.

 

[neodorian]

Alan H.[/url]":fjrsjch7]Ahem. "Is this astronomy".

Glad to see I'm not the only one. The extra syllable made me feel the way an unresolved progression can make me

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRachael]

issor[/url]":2pr27ele]

Is this the real life? Is this just astronomy?

Any way the solar wind blows, doesn't really matter to me.

Or, " Anyway the solarwinds blow, its just anti-matter to me..."

 

[Bemopolis]

I work for a planetarium company, and I updated the name change twenty minutes ago. Sometimes this job has perks.

 

[SomeOtherName]

Wheaty73[/url]":3phi41y0]Better hope it doesn't get knocked out of orbit. We don't want a Hammer (of the Gods) to Fall.

/coat.

Bzzt...wrong band. You could have went with a Who reference, at least Kieth has an astronomical object named after him too.

 

[Wheaty73]

SomeOtherName[/url]":1wvszdj0]

Wheaty73[/url]":1wvszdj0]Better hope it doesn't get knocked out of orbit. We don't want a Hammer (of the Gods) to Fall.

/coat.

Bzzt...wrong band. You could have went with a Who reference, at least Kieth has an astronomical object named after him too.

Actually wrong title! Meant Hammer of God... Too much Zep on my playlist recently.

As in the AC Clarke novel about an asteroid called Kali about to hit earth.

And the song Hammer to Fall. Of course. By Queen.

 

[nkrisc]

raxx7[/url]":5zw76uv8]Bah, Joe Strummer has a deep sea snail named after him: Alviniconcha strummeri.
That's hard core.

Actually it's the outer bits that are hard and the inner bits soft and squishy.

 

[MaxArt]

Wheaty73[/url]":uq3edyf8]And the song Hammer to Fall. Of course. By Queen.

Incidentally, written by Brian May.