Thursday 23 January 2025, 19:24 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 as the electric car launched into space by Elon Musk seven years ago. The announcement of the discovery and subsequent retraction came in less than 24 hours from the Minor Planet Center, the center tasked by the International Astronomical Union with collecting data on asteroids and comets and calculating their orbits. It all started when an amateur astronomer, H. A. Guler, spotted a celestial object less than 240,000 kilometers from Earth, a potential near-Earth asteroid. His report reached the Minor Planet Center, which on January 2nd cataloged the celestial object as an asteroid named 2018 CN41. The reversal came less than 24 hours later when the Minor Planet Center published a second statement claiming that the object's orbit matched that of an artificial object, Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, mounted on the upper stage of the Falcon Heavy rocket launched in February 2018. The car (the first to be sent into space) was a test payload for the Falcon Heavy's maiden flight, with a mannequin named Starman in the driver's seat. The mix-up was quickly resolved thanks to collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers, but some experts argue it highlights the lack of transparency from nations and companies managing vehicles in deep space, beyond the orbits used by most satellites. While objects in low Earth orbit are tracked by the U.S. Space Force, deeper space remains an unregulated frontier. Notably, several space probes in recent years have been mistakenly confused with asteroids, such as the Rosetta probe, the BepiColombo mission, and NASA's Lucy mission. © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED