‘Asteroid’ Discovered By Scientists Turns Out To Be Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster Cruising Through Space

In a surprising turn of events, astronomers initially believed they had discovered a new asteroid, only to realize their mistake later—it wasn’t a celestial rock but a Tesla Roadster belonging to Elon Musk.

On January 2, nearly seven years after its launch, the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center (MPC) announced the discovery of an asteroid designated as 2018 CN41. The object was detected orbiting within 150,000 miles of Earth, a distance closer than the moon, prompting its classification as a near-Earth object. However, soon after, astronomers—both professional and amateur—realized that the so-called asteroid was, in fact, Musk’s red Tesla Roadster, which had been launched aboard the Falcon Heavy rocket on February 6, 2018.

Acknowledging the mistake, the MPC swiftly retracted the designation. “The designation 2018 CN41 is being deleted and will be listed as omitted,” stated the organization, headquartered at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The first person to spot 2018 CN41 was a citizen scientist in Turkey, who used software designed to analyze the MPC’s public records. Though the misclassification was short-lived, some astronomers raised concerns about the error, highlighting the broader issue of tracking space debris and human-made objects beyond Earth’s orbit.

According to Mark Zastrow of Astronomy.com, “The lack of transparency from nations and companies operating craft in deep space, beyond the orbits used by most satellites, is becoming a growing concern.” While the U.S. Space Force closely monitors objects in lower Earth orbits, deeper space remains largely unregulated, leaving room for potential confusion and misidentification.

Zastrow further emphasized that such mix-ups could hinder efforts to track real threats—actual near-Earth asteroids that could pose a risk to our planet. The incident serves as a reminder that a better system is needed to distinguish between human artifacts and genuine celestial bodies to avoid unnecessary distractions for astronomers.

Musk’s Tesla Roadster, with the mannequin Starman at the wheel, was launched as a symbol of SpaceX’s ambitious spacefaring future. At the time, Musk playfully noted, “If all goes well, the Roadster will be in deep space for a billion years or so, if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.”

For those curious about its current whereabouts, the Roadster’s trajectory can be tracked via whereisroadster.com, created by programmer Ben Pearson.

As of the latest update, the vehicle is located 1.64 astronomical units from the Sun, 2.57 AU from Earth, and 3.16 AU from Mars—and fortunately, it is no longer mistaken for an asteroid.

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