The legendary George Takei, best known for playing Sulu on Star Trek, is now the namesake of an asteroid. No joke. The asteroid formerly known as the 1994 GT9, located between Mars and Jupiter, has been renamed 7307 Takei by astronomers in honor of the actor: Group renames asteroid for George Takei. The name was recently approved by the International Astronomical Union's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature That is crazy. But awesome. A massive celestial rock hurtling through space, named after you. What an honor! You know Shatner is jealous.
Speaking of honors... this month, the San Diego Asian Film Festival will present a lifetime achievement award to George Takei at their annual Gala Awards Dinner. He'll also be speaking to festivalgoers about his life, career and legacy at a special conversation moderated by Lee Ann Kim: The Trek of George Takei: An Intimate Discussion . Sunday, October 14 at 1:00pm. Should be pretty cool. Come meet Sulu in person. For more information about all the festival's awesome screenings and events, running October 11-18, visit the website here.
