Newly discovered asteroid turns out to be Tesla Roadster launched into space

Elon Musk's sense of humor is out of this world.

Seven years after the SpaceX CEO launched the Tesla Roadster into orbit, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics' Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts confused it with an asteroid earlier this month.

One day after the Minor Planet Center registered 2018's CN41, astronomers revealed it was actually Musk's Lodestar, which was removed on January 3.

The center said on its website that the registry for 2018 CN41 was “removed after noting that the trajectory matched a man-made object, 2018-017A, a Tesla Roadster and a heavy upper stage.”

SpaceX Starship debris streaks the sky

SpaceX launched the Tesla Roadster in February 2018 with the maiden flight of SpaceX's giant Falcon Heavy Rocket.

According to Musk at the time, the Roadster was expected to go into an elliptical orbit around the sun, but it would go a little past Mars and back toward Earth, continuing beyond the orbit of Mars and into the asteroid belt. I did.

SpaceX launched the Tesla Roadster in February 2018 with the maiden flight of SpaceX's giant Falcon Heavy Rocket. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

According to Astronomy magazine, when the Lodestar was mistaken for an asteroid earlier this month, it was less than 150,000 miles from Earth, closer than the moon's orbit.

Powerful Webb telescope captures photo of one of the earliest supernovae ever seen

Center for Astrophysics (CFA) astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Astronomy Magazine that the mistake points to a problem with untracked objects.

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched a then-previous personal car into orbit. (Justin Sullivan)

“In the worst case scenario, you spend a billion and start a space probe to study an asteroid, only to realize when you get there that it's not an asteroid,” he said.

Click here to get the Fox News app

Fox News Digital has reached out to SpaceX for comment.