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

Less than 24 hours after the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the discovery of a new asteroid ...

Astronomers mistook a Tesla Roadster that was launched into orbit in 2018 for an asteroid earlier this month. The registry of ...

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

The case of mistaken identity was quickly resolved, but astronomers say it shows the need for transparency around craft in ...

The Minor Planet Center seemingly mistook Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster for a small body in space earlier this month, much to ...

Harvard-affiliated astronomers mistook Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster for an asteroid near Earth. Initially flagged as "2018 CN41 ...

On January 2, the Minor Planet Center announced the discovery of the unique asteroid 2018 CN41, but soon had to remove the ...

Musk launched his personal Tesla Roadster into space on February 6, 2018, as a test payload for the Falcon Heavy rocket.

The reason was simple, if at first nonsensical: The object not only was definitely not an asteroid, but wasn't any sort of space object at all. Rather, it was a cherry-red Tesla Roadster.