{"id":109020,"date":"2025-11-01T03:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T03:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/109020\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T03:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T03:04:10","slug":"amateur-astronomer-spotted-elon-musks-tesla-roadster-in-space-and-thought-our-planet-was-in-immediate-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/109020\/","title":{"rendered":"Amateur astronomer spotted Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla Roadster in space and thought our planet was in immediate danger"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the start of this year, an amateur astronomer in Turkey thought he had discovered something in space that put our planet in immediate danger \u2013 turns out it was Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla Roadster.<\/p>\n

The object appeared to be moving fast, too fast, and its orbit suggested it could pass even closer than the Moon.<\/p>\n

The Minor Planet Center<\/a> even categorized this mistaken asteroid and gave it a name.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t a new asteroid at all \u2013 it was Elon Musk\u2019s cherry-red Tesla Roadster, still cruising through space nearly seven years after its launch.<\/p>\n

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Amateur astronomer thought our planet was in immediate danger<\/p>\n

A Turkish amateur astronomer had the fright of their life after seeing an object in space that was hurtling dangerously close to Earth and assumed it was a rogue asteroid<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The sighting was reported to the Minor Planet Center, which briefly catalogued it as a potential near-Earth object named \u20182018 CN41\u2019.<\/p>\n

With its trajectory showing a pass about 240,000 kilometres from Earth, there was real concern it might be on a collision path.<\/p>\n

\"Amateur<\/a>SpaceX<\/p>\n

Within hours, however, astronomers realised the orbit matched something familiar, the Tesla Roadster launched aboard SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018. <\/p>\n

The car, complete with its \u2018Starman\u2019 mannequin in the driver\u2019s seat, had simply made another close pass by Earth.<\/p>\n

After confirming its identity, the supposed asteroid was removed from the official list, and the near-miss fears quickly faded<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, the confusion served as a funny yet sobering reminder of how human-made objects can easily be mistaken for natural ones, especially as more space debris clutters near-Earth orbits.<\/p>\n

\"Amateur<\/a>SpaceX<\/p>\n

This Tesla Roadster is space junk<\/p>\n

When the Tesla CEO<\/a> sent his personal Roadster into space, it was meant as a bold demonstration of SpaceX\u2019s launch power mixed with a little bit of showmanship. <\/p>\n

But its unexpected reappearance at the start of this year proved that even a marketing stunt can cause a ripple in the world of space science.<\/p>\n

\"Amateur<\/a>Wikicommons<\/p>\n

For astronomers, it\u2019s a wake-up call about how much man-made material is out there and how much \u2018space junk\u2019 is cluttering up the universe. <\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s time for a space junk clean-up mission?<\/p>\n

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\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the start of this year, an amateur astronomer in Turkey thought he had discovered something in space…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-109020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}