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A rookie astronomer thought Musk’s space-going “Starman” was a new asteroid



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.

There was even a pretty cool livestream of Starman’s expeditions on YouTube. The low-quality camera looks over the mannequin’s shoulder. It’s pretty neat for a while until you realize how vast, dark, and quiet space is…

On January 2, some astronomers at the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics thought a rookie astronomer in Turkey discovered a new asteroid caught in our planet’s orbit. The agency reported it was close to Earth, though no immediate threat was posed, reported Newsweek.

It was cataloged as 2018 CN41, and records stated it was 150,000 miles from Earth – closer than our moon – classifying it as a “near-Earth object.”

Then Starman was removed from the records

Days after the new “discovery” was announced, the MPC deleted 2018 CN41 from its records as a deeper dive revealed it was Starman in the Roadster making his rounds.

“The designation 2018 CN41, announced in MPEC 2025-A38 on Jan 2, 2025, UT, is being deleted,” wrote the agency in its official retraction notice. “The next day it was pointed out the orbit matched 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.”

G, the junior astronomer who submitted his findings to the MPC, said he was embarrassed to learn it wasn’t an asteroid.

“Being slightly embarrassed that I might have caused unnecessary excitement (it WAS quite a low MOID [minimum orbital intersection distance]), I quickly went to MPC’s help desk and let them know the NEO I just submitted was a rocket stage,” he told the outlet.

The scientist-to-be forgot about Musky’s space stunt

“I first went to JPL’s Small Body Database to quickly take a look at the Earth close approach dates and potential Mars close approach dates, to see if I could correlate those to a known interplanetary mission. I failed — 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,” he told Astronomy.

The stunt, which many felt was akin to littering in space, is getting people talking about Starman again – just like he did back in 2018.



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