Senior officers desert rising celebrity (9)

I believe the answer is:

superstar

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'celebrity' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'senior officers desert rising' is the wordplay.
'senior officers' becomes 'supers' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'desert' becomes 'rat' (abandon treacherously).
'rising' says the letters should be written backwards (going up in a down clue).
'rat' backwards is 'tar'.
'supers'+'tar'='SUPERSTAR'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for superstar that I've seen before include "top celebrity" , "Dazzling genius" , "Celeb" , "Big name" , "Dazzling virtuoso" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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