Today in In Space, No One Can Hear Your Gentle, Ambient Airport Music News: Brian Eno has an asteroid now. Per Rolling Stone, the Roxy Music member and David Bowie/David Byrne/other famous musicians not named David collaborator has just joined the ranks of J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, and mutant supervillain Magneto by getting an asteroid named after himself.
Specifically, Eno is now the proud namesake of 81948 (2000 OM69), which now goes by the somehow-even-more-of-a-mouthful name “Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno.” (Here’s hoping this never turns out to be one of those asteroids we have to blow up to save the planet, because time will probably turn into a factor—although the soundtrack for that particular movie would probably be amazing.) Eno—whose Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks remains one of the most celebrated pieces of space-based ambient music ever—received a certificate acknowledging the name change at science-themed convention Starmus V this week; he also received a Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication at the same event, presumably in recognition of his long-standing, time-tested ability to modulate, control, and just generally work with the various flare-ups and burnouts of a variety of music’s most highly-powered stars.