The object in space, which at first, the astronomers identified as an asteroid close to the ground, turned out to be a Tesla car launched by Ilon into space in 2018 as part of an advertising campaign, The Independent reports.

A little earlier in the same month, the amateur astronomer discovered in the sky what seemed a “asteroid” designated as 2018 CN41. The object passed very close to the ground. The later discovered Asteroid caused anxiety. After all, he approached our planet less than 240 thousand km, that is, a distance closer than the orbit of the moon.

However, the center of small planets (MPC), officially recognizing such space stones, has denied its conclusions within a day. The agency confirmed that the object in question was the cherry-red Tesla Roadster. Ilon Musk launched this car into space during the first flight of the Falcon Heavy Rocket SpaceX.

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“It was noted that the orbit coincides with the artificial object of 2018-017a, the accelerated block Falcon Heavy with the Tesla relative. The 2018 CN41 designation is deleted and will be included in the list as missed, ”the MPC editorial message says.

A car with a driver named Starman was launched in 2018 as a fictitious useful load and since then the car rotates around the sun. According to the mask, the choice is to send a car, and not an ordinary concrete block as an imitation useful load - this is just a little fun.

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The amateur astronomer, who was the first to notice the mysterious object, noted in an interview with Astronomy that he was “in ecstasy” when he was identified by MPC. However, when he tracked the orbit of the Asteroid, he began to doubt. The male suspicions were subsequently confirmed by Astrona was confirmed by Jonathan MacDowell from Harvard-Smithsonovo Center for Astrophysics.

“The launch of Falcon never occurred to me. I almost came to the conclusion that it was a real APZ (near -Earth object) and stopped the search, but asked in the list of mailing in small planets to dispel the latest doubts... At least we managed to filter some observations of not small planets from the MPC database, ”.

Earlier it was reported that the astronomer from Japan was able to photograph the moment of falling a mysterious object to the moon. It was probably a meteor from the stream of heminida. There is an assumption that the flow may contain large, potentially dangerous objects, but most meteors burn in the Earth's atmosphere. But, as shown by the images obtained by Daichi Fuji, the astronomer and curator of the museum of the city of Hirasuk in Japan, some may fall on the moon.