Elon Musk's space vehicle has stirred up excitement among astronomers.

Due to confusion among observers of the vast cosmic expanses, Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, launched into orbit aboard SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket back in 2018, was briefly mistaken for an asteroid earlier this month. The traveling car even received a classification and mingled with other celestial bodies, as reported by Fox News.

Astronomers from the Minor Planet Center, part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, cataloged the vehicle as "2018 CN41" before realizing their mistake. The classification was swiftly revoked once it was confirmed that it was Musk's car, still engaged in its cosmic rendezvous around the Sun.

The Minor Planet Center explained that the registry for "2018 CN41" was deleted on January 3, noting that its orbital trajectory matched that of an artificial object—the Tesla Roadster and the upper stage of Falcon Heavy, which was initially launched during the first Falcon Heavy flight by SpaceX in February 2018.

Initially, scientists assumed that the car would follow an elliptical orbit around the Sun, extending slightly beyond Mars. When astronomers spotted the vehicle earlier this month, it was less than 241,401 kilometers from Earth—closer than the Moon's orbit. This proximity prompted astronomers to closely monitor its trajectory, considering the potential dangers posed by untracked objects in space.

Astrophysicist from the Center for Astrophysics, Jonathan McDowell, discussed the challenges of tracking such objects and warned of the possible consequences of their presence in space. "In the worst-case scenario, you spend a billion to launch a space probe to study an asteroid and only realize it’s not an asteroid when you get there," McDowell said.

The Roadster, which housed a mannequin named "Starman" in a spacesuit, was launched as a playful demonstration of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy capabilities. Since then, it has become a unique artifact of space exploration, traveling millions of miles in the vacuum of space. Images from the early days of its journey, featuring the car against the backdrop of Earth, captured public attention and continue to symbolize the company's ambitious plans in the vastness of the Universe.

Adding further intrigue and danger to the situation is the mere fact of the car's reappearance near the planet, emphasizing the complexity of tracking artificial objects in space and the increasing trend of their numbers around our home. This issue is becoming more pressing as the number of satellites and debris in Earth's orbit grows. The current situation draws attention to the need for improved tracking systems that can distinguish natural celestial bodies from anthropogenic objects, as well as the development of methods for their collection and destruction to clear space around the planet.