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Cristiano Ronaldo a true Galactico with newly discovered galaxy namesake

Cristiano Ronaldo has been one of football's brightest stars for many years, but he is now an entire galaxy.

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory have named a newly-discovered galaxy CR7 - and while that officially stands for Cosmos Redshift 7, a measure of its place in cosmic time, the astronomers added the nickname was inspired by the Real Madrid forward.

The team of scientists was led by David Sobral from the University of Lisbon, who wanted to honour Portugal international Ronaldo.

According to the astronomers, CR7 is "three times brighter than the brightest distant galaxy known up to now."

It remains to be seen if Ronaldo's great rival Lionel Messi can find a response to that.