this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2025
211 points (96.9% liked)

Astronomy

4368 readers
17 users here now

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Sal@mander.xyz
211
Astronomers just deleted an asteroid because it turned out to be Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster (www.astronomy.com)
submitted 1 month ago by neme@lemm.ee to c/astronomy@mander.xyz
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] shitcomputerologist@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

Tracking doesn't necessarily have to be lost for this kind of thing to happen. The Rosetta spacecraft was accidentally given a provisional asteroid designation in 2007.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)#Deep_space_manoeuvres