A newly discovered asteroid was recently removed from the records after it was discovered that it was actually a cherry-red Tesla Roadster sent to space in 2018.<\/p>\n
On January 2, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced the\u00a0discovery of an unusual asteroid, designated 2018 CN41.<\/p>\n
First identified and submitted by a citizen scientist, the object\u2019s orbit was notable, it came less than 240 000 km (150 000 miles) from Earth, closer than the orbit of the Moon. <\/p>\n That qualified it as a near-Earth object (NEO), and it was to be monitored for its potential to impact Earth someday.<\/p>\n But less than 17 hours later, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) issued an\u00a0editorial notice that it was deleting 2018 CN41 from its records because, it turned out, the object was not an asteroid but Elon Musk\u2019s 2010 cherry red roadster.<\/p>\n The Cherry Red Tesla Roadster was mounted on the Falcon Heavy upper stage and sent to space and into the Sun\u2019s orbit on February 6, 2018, on the Falcon Heavy upper stage. It gained massive publicity during the time as the first production car to have been launched into space.<\/p>\n References:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/watchers.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Elon_Musks_Tesla_Roadster_port_view-1536x864-2-1024x576.webp\")