By In a cosmic twist, astronomers from Harvard University recently misidentified a Tesla sports car, launched into space by Elon Musk in 2018, as a near-Earth asteroid. The object, initially registered as “2018 CN41,” caused a brief stir in the scientific community before researchers realized their error.
The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, first identified the object on January 2, 2025. It was traveling roughly 150,000 miles from Earth—closer than the moon—which raised concerns about its potential to become a future threat. This proximity led to the assumption that it was a previously undiscovered asteroid, according to a report by The New York Post.
However, just 17 hours later, astronomers determined that the “asteroid” was, in fact, Musk’s cherry-red Tesla Roadster. The car had been launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket during a test mission seven years earlier, complete with a mannequin named “Starman” in the driver’s seat. The spectacle of a sports car floating through space became an iconic symbol of Musk’s ambitious vision for humanity’s interplanetary future.
This unusual mistake underscores the growing challenges faced by astronomers as the amount of untracked space debris continues to increase. Modern telescopes are designed to identify and monitor celestial objects, but distinguishing between natural bodies and human-made items remains a complex task.
My car is orbiting Earth and Mars 🤷♂️ https://t.co/zuOd4PjZFa
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2025
As astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell from the Center for Astrophysics explained in Astronomy magazine, “Worst case, you spend a billion launching a space probe to study an asteroid and only realize it’s not an asteroid when you get there.” The potential for such expensive missteps emphasizes the need for better identification and tracking of artificial objects in Earth’s orbit and beyond.
On January 3, the Minor Planet Center officially removed the Tesla from its asteroid database.
