Mysterious 'asteroid' orbiting Planet Earth is actually Elon Musk's car

A brand new mysterious 'asteroid' is causing confusion after it was spotted and submitted by an amateur astronomer, before being designated 2018 CN41.

It was less than 150,000 miles (240,000 km) away from Planet Earth which qualifies it as a near-Earth object (NEO), something that is worth monitoring in case of a potential impact with our planet, reports Astronomy.

However less than 24 hours later, it was deleted from records by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), which officially recognises such space rocks, as it turned out the 'asteroid' was not actually that.

It was in fact Elon Musk's car he launched into space.

Elon Musk launched a Tesla Roadster into space as part of a test programme / SpaceX

In an editorial notice, the MPC said: "It was pointed out the orbit matches an artificial object 2018-017A, Falcon Heavy Upper stage with the Tesla Roadster. The designation 2018 CN41 is being deleted and will be listed as omitted."

Musk launched the car into space in February 2018 during the first flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket.

The Turkish amateur astronomer, who wanted to be identified as G, said: "I was ecstatic and submitted the identification.

"The Falcon launch had never crossed my mind. I almost concluded it was an actual NEO and stopped looking but I asked around on the Minor Planet Mailing List just to erase my final doubts.

"Being slightly embarrassed that I might have caused unnecessary excitement (it WAS quite a low MOID), I quickly went to MPC's help desk and let them know the NEO I just submitted was a rocket stage."

Oops...

Elsewhere, a new study found mounds and hills on Mars contain layers of clay minerals that formed when flowing water interacted with the rocks and another study has revealed the universe is expanding too quickly for our current understanding of physics to explain.

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.