A curious accident aroused the attention of the media and scientists: a object near the earthinitially identified as a asteroidturned out to be something much more unexpected. The alleged Asteroid 2018 CN41, which had aroused concern for its trajectory dangerously close to our planet, was actually the Tesla Roadster launched by Elon Musk in 2018.
The discovery was made by an amateur astronomer in Türkiye, who had identified the object through a software developed by himself to analyze the APC archive (Minor Planet Center). Initially the object was reported as an asteroid, but after having examined its orbit more closely, it was clarified that it was the famous Musk car, launched in 2018 as an unconventional useful load During the inaugural flight of Spacex’s Falcon Heavy rocket.
The Tesla, Complete with a mannequin called “Starman” behind the wheel, he was launched in space with the intent to demonstrate the capacity of the rocket of bring loads outside the terrestrial orbit. From that moment, the car he orbited around the sun, Without talking about it much until it has been mistakenly identified as an asteroid.
The problem of the growing amount of artificial objects in space
This error, albeit innocent and apparently even funny, however highlights an increasingly present and worrying problem: the quantity of artificial objects in spacemany of which are not adequately traced.
The growing presence of spatial debris and artificial vehicles beyond the low terrestrial orbit is creating new riskssince there are no international regulations for trace These objects in deep space. While the terrestrial orbit satellites are carefully monitored, the objects that travel further.
Astronomes warn that, if this issue is not faced, there may be concrete dangers, such as the misunderstanding of the trajectories of space missions Or the late discovery that an object on a mission is not an asteroid, as in the case of the Tesla Roadster.
And the car, are you wondering? Well, at the moment Continue his journey Through the cosmos, but scientists provide that, in the next million years, it could eventually hit the earth or Venuseven if the probability is low. However, due to the space environment, the car could be Destroyed much earlier due to cosmic radiation and high -speed spatial powder.
