- Words Louis Rabinowitz
- Photography Robin Harper for Notion 78
It has been officially announced that an asteroid has been renamed in honour of SOPHIE's memory.
The music world was shaken last January by the sudden and tragic passing of the seminal artist SOPHIE, who was acclaimed as one of the 21st century’s most pioneering musicians.
Her fanbase, including Charli XCX, sought to honour her memory by launching a petition to name the recently-discovered planet TOI 1338 b, whose appearance bore a resemblance to the album art of SOPHIE’s 2018 LP ‘Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides’, after the late musician. It quickly garnered over 95,000 signatures on Change.org, but little had seemed to come of it.
However, a year later, fans’ efforts to memorialise SOPHIE have borne fruit. The petition’s creator, Christian Arroyo, has posted an update on Change.org confirming that while the planet was not renamed, the asteroid RE1, which had been discovered Antonín Mrkos at the Kleť Observatory in the Czech Republic, has been officially renamed as “Sophiexeon”.
In documents registered last year, the International Astronomical Union stated that “SOPHIE was known as an electronic music pioneer whose futuristic style changed the landscape of pop music in the early 21st century”. For his part, Arroyo has acclaimed the move, saying that “SOPHIE has influenced so many of us, and now she will forever be part of the cosmos”.
For an artist associated by so many with the cosmos, it’s a fitting way to ensure her legacy will live on.