In a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk’s cherry-red Tesla Roadster, launched into space in 2018, was recently misidentified as an asteroid by astronomers. This incident highlights the challenges of tracking objects in deep space, especially amidst the increasing number of human-made objects orbiting our planet.
Seven years after SpaceX launched Elon Musk ’s cherry red sports car into orbit around our sun, astronomers unwittingly began paying attention to its movements once again. Observers spotted and correctly identified the vehicle as it started its extraterrestrial excursion in February 2018 — after it had blasted off into space during the Falcon Heavy rocket’s splashy maiden launch.
But more recently, the car spawned a high-profile case of mistaken identity as space observers mistook it for an asteroid. Several observations of the vehicle, gathered by sweeping surveys of the night sky, were inadvertently stashed away in a database meant for miscellaneous and unknown objects, according to the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. An amateur astronomer noticed a string of data points in January that appeared to fit together, describing the orbit of a relatively small object that was swooping between the orbital paths of Earth and Mars. The citizen scientist assumed the mystery object was an undocumented asteroid and promptly sent his findings to the MPC, which operates at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a clearinghouse that seeks to catalog all known asteroids, comets and other small celestial bodies. An astronomer there verified the finding. And thus, the Minor Planet Center logged a new object, asteroid “2018 CN41.” Within 24 hours, however, the center retracted the designation. The person who originally flagged the object realized their own error, MPC astronomer Peter Veres told CNN, noticing that they had, in fact, found several uncorrelated observations of Musk’s car. And the center’s systems hadn’t caught the error. “(The amateur astronomer) was correct. (The data points) really did belong together,” said Veres, who created the database entry for 2018 CN41. “But again, we just receive the numbers — the positions, and even the astronomers (using) telescopes, they just see a dot that is moving. “So from that perspective, if you don’t know up front it’s a Tesla Roadster, there is no way to tell,” Veres added. It was a remarkable case of mistaken identity. But it was far from the first, as a host of similar cases have troubled astronomers. The mix-ups highlight difficulties with tracking objects in deep space — a problem exacerbated by the growing number of human-made objects getting jettisoned into the ether. Rock or rocket? Objects traversing our solar system have been misidentified several times in recent years, NASA’s Paul Chodas recalled to CNN. Chodas is director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Space experts had mistaken a rocket body on a collision course with the moon for a SpaceX launch vehicle before it was confirmed in 2022 to be a rocket booster from one of China’s past lunar missions. A piece of the Apollo 12 mission’s Saturn V rocket, which carried three astronauts on the second crewed moon landing in 1969, baffled scientists in the early 2000s when it came back into Earth’s orbit. Astronomers had to closely inspect the discarded hardware’s bizarre trajectory to make an accurate identification. The University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 telescope spotted another rocket part in 2020 that helped launch NASA’s doomed Surveyor 2 lunar probe in 1966 during the height of the 20th century space race. The detection confounded researchers until the US government ordered a “high-level inter-agency” effort to figure out what the object was, Chodas said. Interest, and sometimes urgency, in understanding and tracking deep-space objects stems from a desire to fundamentally understand the workings of the cosmos as well as helping policymakers and scientists understand threats — whether those threats are asteroids or foreign adversaries. Evading professional astronomers Musk’s sports car managed to sneak back up on the professionals charged with tracking objects in our solar system for several reasons. One key factor: Experts haven’t been all that interested in keeping tabs on the vehicle. The car is not on a voyage of scientific pursuits. It was sent to space as a piece of deadweight on the inaugural test flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, and the vehicle is now destined to spend eternity soaring aimlessly through our cosmic neighborhood. The car has an extremely small chance of ever impacting Earth. So as far as astronomers are concerned, it’s just a hefty piece of space junk. Still, mistaking a spacecraft or human-made object for an asteroid is troublesome for the Minor Planet Center, which is tasked only with identifying naturally occurring objects. “We don’t want to receive (data about) any artificial objects at all,” Veres said. “It’s basically wasted time for us,” he added, referring to the MPC.
Space Exploration Astronomy Asteroid Tesla Roadster Spacex Falcon Heavy Elon Musk
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Track Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster in space with this aptly named websiteLast week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk launched his now-famous red Tesla Roadster into space, aboard the first Falcon Heavy rocket. If you want to know where the first car cruising our Solar System is right now, there’s a website for that — aptly called Whereisroadster.com.
Read more »
Space 'Asteroid' Turns Out to Be Elon Musk's Tesla RoadsterA newly discovered 'asteroid' turned out to be Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster launched into space in 2018.
Read more »
Astronomers Mistakenly Identify Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster as a Potentially Hazardous AsteroidHarvard University-affiliated astronomers initially identified a space object as a new asteroid, raising concerns about a potential Earth impact. However, the discovery was retracted 17 hours later after it was realized that the object was actually Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, launched into space by SpaceX in 2018.
Read more »
Astronomers Mistakenly Identify Elon Musk's Roadster as AsteroidAstronomers at the Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts mistakenly identified Elon Musk's SpaceX Tesla Roadster as an asteroid, highlighting the challenges of tracking unidentified objects in space.
Read more »
SpaceX Roadster Mistaken for Asteroid by AstronomersSeven years after Elon Musk launched a Tesla Roadster into orbit, astronomers from the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics accidentally identified it as an asteroid. The roadster, launched in February 2018 as part of the maiden flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, was initially registered as 2018 CN41 but was later deleted after its true identity was revealed.
Read more »
Tesla Roadster Mistaken for Asteroid, Highlighting Lack of Spacecraft TransparencyElon Musk's Tesla Roadster, launched in 2018, was recently mistaken for an asteroid, prompting concerns about the lack of transparency in spacecraft operations. This incident underscores the need for a centralized tracking system to prevent future misidentifications.
Read more »