An asteroid has been named after Nile Rodgers

The guitar maestro was gifted the namesake by the International Astronomical Union for his 70th birthday

Taking the meaning of rock star to another level, an asteroid has been named after Nile Rodgers to celebrate the disco legend’s 70th birthday. Nilerodgers (191911) was discovered in April 2005, Rolling Stone reports, and its naming was organised by Simon Lowery, a friend of Rodgers who works with the European Southern Observatory and International Astronomical Union.

Lowery presented the certificate to Rodgers at his 70th birthday dinner, and also gifted him a watch that reveals the asteroid’s exact location in space. “It’s just so crazy. It’s so… out of this world,” he told Rolling Stone. “When you think about movies that you’ve seen in the past, and they talked about, ‘We just saw an asteroid and we think that it’s on a trajectory with whatever … oh, that asteroid is Nilerodgers!’”

The 70-year-old — who has written or co-written hits such as ‘Like A Virgin’, ‘Get Lucky’, ‘I’m Coming Out’ and ‘Let’s Dance’ to name a few — recently performed two End of Summer Party shows in London and Manchester. To celebrate his own birthday he gifted his We Are Family $1 million.

CHIC feat. Nile Rodgers - Everybody Dance (BBC In Concert, Oct 30th 2017)