He thinks he found an asteroid but it was… a Tesla car

© Tesla

At the beginning of January, in the cold winter nights, a young Turkish astronomer makes a discovery, to say the least astonishing. While scanning the sky with his telescope, he comes face to face with an unidentified flying object. Detected only 240,000 kilometers from Earth, closer than the Moon, this asteroid could one day fall back on us.

As soon as the discovery is made, he rushes to write to the Minor Planet Center, the group of researchers in charge of cataloguing small asteroids discovered by chance. The news is then taken very seriously by scientists and they in turn try to get their hands on this object.

But the madness of the discovery will only last a few hours. As the information circulates in the corridors of the prestigious University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, scientists discover that this is not a classic asteroid. With their advanced equipment, they quickly recognize the celestial object.

The asteroid was actually a car

It is not a piece of rock flying through space for millennia, but only a Tesla car. Indeed, Elon Musk, with his company SpaceX, had launched a Tesla car into space in February 2018.

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This much-criticized flight had proven that his Falcon Heavy rocket was capable of reaching deep space. During the rocket's inaugural launch, a Tesla Roadster was therefore placed under the fairing. The event was followed by millions of people and served as a giant advertisement for Tesla.

At the same time, the automobile company was experiencing serious financial difficulties. It needed a surge in sales to reach profitability. While this publicity stunt is not the only reason behind Tesla's success, it has made the brand known to millions of people.

A recurring problem for astronomers

While the discovery is amusing, it does not delight professionals in the sector who are starting to get tired of discovering debris or probes and confusing them with asteroids. This is not the first time that a human object has found itself in the sights of astronomers.

In the past, the Rosetta or WMAP probes have already been mistaken for asteroids. Unfortunate discoveries that highlight a problem of traceability of these devices, once they have left low Earth orbit.

When the mission of these devices is over, they follow a random trajectory, sailing in our solar system for years, without their route being monitored by anyone. For his part, the young Turkish astronomer assures that this discovery, although it is not the one hoped for, is still “interesting”.

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