Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster Misidentified As An Asteroid

In case you, like some astronomers, have forgotten, seven years ago Elon Musk decided to send his personal Tesla Roadster into space. It’s still out there and has come back towards Earth, as some poor souls at the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics were reminded of quite harshly lately.

Elon Musk has been accused of ripping off a surprising person’s ideas.

Astronomers at the illustrious institution excitedly announced their discovery early in January of a new asteroid, lovingly called 2018 CN41, fairly near the Earth. However, just days later another announcement came that classification of 2018 CN41 had been deleted since it was in fact an unnatural object.

That’s right, they thought Elon’s Tesla that’s done a nice little lap around this part of the solar system for years was a big chunk of space rock none of their peers had discovered before.

Launched into space during the maiden space voyage of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket back in February 2018, shocking many. Some tried to characterize the move as irresponsible littering in space, while others applauded it as hilarious.

What’s even more interesting is a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit, which Musk calls Starman, sits in the driver’s seat. Known for having an interesting sense of humor, it was another publicity stunt from Musk which got everyone talking. Now it’s doing just that again.

While the astronomers were fooled for a bit, there are entire websites dedicated to tracking Starman and the Tesla Roadster as they cruise around the solar system. Perhaps the Minor Planet Center should’ve consulted those first?

We wonder if Musk will do something similar with the new Roadster after it launches or if he sent this one into space because he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the design. After all, the original Roadster was based on a Lotus, so it wasn’t created as an EV from the ground up. Claims Elon is making about the second-gen Roadster are pretty wild, with anticipation for the electric car’s launch running high.

Images via SpaceX

Source: Fox News