Elon Musk His sense of humor is out of this world.
Seven years after SpaceX CEO moved to orbit to Tesla Roadster, From astronomers The Minor Planet Center at the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysics Center in Massachusetts was confused with an asteroid earlier this month.
It was deleted on January 3, when Minor Planet Center revealed that it was in fact a roadster for masks, a day after the astronomer registered CN41 in 2018.
The centre said the 2018 CN41 registry was removed after noting that the orbit coincided with the artefacts, 2018-017A, the Tesla Roadster and Falcon heavy upper stage.
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Seven years after SpaceX CEO put Tesla Roadster in orbit, astronomers at the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center in Massachusetts confused it with an asteroid earlier this month. (SpaceX via Getty Images)
SpaceX launched the Tesla Roadster in February 2018 with SpaceX’s giant Falcon Heavy Rocket Maiden Flying.
The roadster was expected to enter an elliptical orbit around the Sun and return slightly beyond Mars towards Earth, but was clearly maintained beyond Mars’ orbit Go to the asteroid beltAccording to Musk at the time.
SpaceX launched the Tesla Roadster in February 2018 with SpaceX’s giant Falcon Heavy Rocket Maiden Flying. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images))
According to the Astronomical Journal, when the Roadster was mistaken for an asteroid earlier this month, it was less than 150,000 miles from Earth, which is closer to the moon’s orbit.
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Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist for Astrophysics (CFA) told Astronomy Magazine that the mistake indicates an issue with untracked objects.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a former private vehicle onto the track. (Justin Sullivan)
“In the worst case, you just spend a billion and start a space probe to study asteroids and realize when you get there it’s not an asteroid,” he said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to SpaceX for comment.
