The newly discovered asteroid, named 2018 CN41, turned out to be a Tesla launched into space by SpaceX in 2018.

Astronomers mistook a Tesla Roadster that was launched into orbit in 2018 for an asteroid earlier this month. The registry of what was thought to be an asteroid was soon deleted.

What an amateur astronomer recently took to be a newly-discovered asteroid turned out to be a Tesla Roadster voyaging through the cosmos.

Shortly thereafter, the MPC issued a retraction because 2018 CN41 turned out to be Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster launched into orbit in February 2018.

Earlier this month, an amateur astronomer discovered what appeared to be the “asteroid”, designated 2018 CN41, that appeared to be passing very close to Earth.

The designation 2018 CN41 is being deleted and will be listed as omitted." New space objects are discovered all the time. It's important work.

Within a day, however, they deleted the item, called 2018 CN41, because they realized it wasn’t a natural object: It was a Tesla strapped to part of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

The centre said: "The designation 2018 CN41, announced in MPEC 2025-A38 on Jan 2, 2025 UT, is being deleted. The next day it was pointed out the orbit matches an artificial object 2018-017A ...

It looked like an asteroid, but it was a Tesla: the space mix-up involving the celestial object 2018 CN41 was resolved in a few hours. Initially cataloged as a new asteroid, it was later identified ...

On Jan. 2, the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced the discovery of an unusual asteroid, designated 2018 CN41. First ...