Photo: Leonid Elenin’s Facebook

On March 31, 2009, Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin discovered an asteroid. Some five years later, Elenin has chosen the perfect name for it: Alex Ovechkin.

Elenin, who lives in Moscow’s suburb Lyubertsy and works at Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics in Moscow, called the asteroid a late birthday gift for Ovechkin on his Facebook.

This is the first heavenly body named after the hockey player.

For the space-enlightened, NASA has more.