Five days ago, a petition was launched online to have the recently photographed black hole named after Chris Cornell.
The very first image of the colossal cosmic phenomenon was broadcast around the world last week – and Cornell fan Giuliana Jarrin wanted to mark the occasion to pay tribute to Cornell and Soundgarden’s 1994 classic track Black Hole Sun.
Jarrin was originally looking for 500 people to sign the petition, but since then, the numbers have rocketed – with more than 46,000 people pledging their support.
And now, Cornell’s old Audioslave bandmate Tom Morello has thrown his weight behind the campaign.
Speaking about the petition with Rock 105 WRXR, the guitarist says: “I think that would be really nice. I don’t know who you send that petition to, but I’d be happy to officially add my name to that. It seems absolutely appropriate.”
While the black hole is currently named NGC 4486 or Messier 87 – M87 for short, it’s also been given the slightly friendlier title Pōwehi – a Hawaiian name referring to the “embellished dark source of unending creation”.
However, this isn’t official, so there’s still hope that it could eventually be named after the late vocalist.
