Less than 24 hours after the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the discovery of a new asteroid, they said it was actually Musk's car.

The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., officially registered the new space rock Jan. 2, saying it was spotted hurling through the final frontier roughly 150,000 miles from Earth, according

In 2018, it was a big deal that Elon Musk launched his personal Tesla Roadster into space. Behind the wheel is “Starman,” a mannequin dressed as an astronaut made to look like he’s driving the EV around our planet. The Roadster and Starman are still out there, with no clear destination or return-to-Earth date.

The case of mistaken identity was quickly resolved, but astronomers say it shows the need for transparency around craft in deep space.

Harvard-affiliated astronomers mistook Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster for an asteroid near Earth. Initially flagged as "2018 CN41," the object's identity was clarified within 17 hours, sparking concerns about tracking space debris.

Musk launched his personal Tesla Roadster into space on February 6, 2018, as a test payload for the Falcon Heavy rocket.

A strange object recently spotted orbiting Earth has been identified as a Tesla Roadster. Initially classified as asteroid "2018 CN41" by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) on January 2, 2025, the object was discovered by an amateur astronomer based in Turkey.

Without central repository for artificial objects, it'll only get worse Scientists mistook Elon Musk's Tesla roadster for an asteroid in a debacle that highlights the problem of tracking near-Earth objects.