Why is Elon Musk's Tesla car in space? Near-Earth 'asteroid' turns out to be red Roadster car with dummy driver - where is Starman now?

The object was first spotted by an amateur astronomer in Turkey, who brought it to the attention of scientists with the Minor Planet Center (MPC). Earlier this month, they announced its discovery, initially designating it as a new asteroid named 2018 CN41.

It was classified as a Near-Earth Object (NEO) after it was seen orbiting within 150,000 miles of Earth, which is closer than the moon. Their proximity to our planet means that NEOs are often closely monitored to regularly assess the risk they pose to Earth.

But just hours after announcing the discovery, the Massachusetts-based MPC revealed it was deleting 2018 CN41 from its records after a team member realized that the orbit of 2018 CN41 matched artificial object 2018-017A which was already known to scientists. The object in question was a cherry-red Tesla launched into space by Musk as a publicity stunt in February 2018.

Musk had put together a crossover of his two companies, Tesla and SpaceX, when he strapped a Tesla Roadster payload piloted by a space-suited dummy to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and launched the ship into space. At the time, it received a great deal of notoriety as the first production car to be flung into space, complete with a suited-up mannequin in the driver's seat named Starman. The dashboard also displays a message that reads "don't panic" from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The car received an International Designator (COSPAR ID) of 2018-017A and Satellite Catalogue number (SATCAT) of 43205 after launch, with the MPC citing its COSPAR ID when announcing it would withdraw the new designation from its records. The organization said in a statement that it would be listed as "omitted".

According to the SkyLive website, the SpaceX Roadster (Starman) car is in the constellation of Capricornus, at a distance of 385,063,993.8 kilometers from Earth. The car is reportedly in a heliocentric orbit, which means it will eventually return to the inner Solar System and pass through the asteroid belt, and is likely to impact either Venus or Earth in the next tens of millions of years.