Less than 24 hours after the Minor Planet Center announced a new asteroid, it said the object was actually Musk's electric car launched into space as payload on a rocket.

The “asteroid” wasn’t a space rock after all. It was a cherry-red Tesla Roadster that Elon Musk launched into space to much fanfare in 2018 as part of a publicity stunt during the maiden flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. The car, complete with a mannequin named “Starman” in the driver’s seat, had been orbiting the Sun ever since.

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

However, the Minor Planet Center (MPC), the agency responsible for cataloging asteroids, quickly retracted the classification after determining that the object was actually Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster, which was sent into space aboard SpaceX’s inaugural Falcon Heavy flight.

The car, launched in 2018 on a SpaceX rocket’s upper stage, is one of many human-made objects in deep space that could potentially be mistaken for natural celestial bodies

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

The Minor Planet Center (MPC) deleted the new asteroid from its records just hours after announcing the discovery after realizing the object was actually a cherry-red Tesla Roadster

A near-Earth "asteroid" recently spotted by astronomers poring through telescope data has turned out to be Elon Musk's car. On January 2, the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center announced the discovery of a new asteroid.