Wed 7 Sep 2016 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
An asteroid has been named after bisexual singer the late Freddie Mercury to mark what would have been his 70th birthday. Freddie Mercury Mercury, lead singer of the '70s and '80s super-group Queen, died in 1991 at age 45 following years of being publicly coy about his sexuality, despite an outrageously camp persona. It was revealed shortly after his death that he had died due to illness connected to HIV/AIDS and he was one of the world's most prominent celebrities to succumb to the then almost invariably fatal disease. The asteroid, whose official designation is Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury was discovered in the year of his death. The announcement has been made by Queen guitarist Brian May, who went on to a career as an astrophysicist after the band's heyday and was honored with his own asteroid in 2008. In the past asteroids have been named for Jimi Hendrix and for the Beatles.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 7th September 2016 - 1:27pm