The car, launched in 2018 on a SpaceX rocket’s upper stage, is one of many human-made objects in deep space that could potentially be mistaken for natural celestial bodies

Less than 24 hours after the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the discovery of a new asteroid, they said it was actually Musk's car.

A brand new mysterious 'asteroid' is causing confusion after it was spotted and submitted by an amateur astronomer, before being designated 2018 CN41. It was less than 150,000 miles (240,000 km) away from Planet Earth which qualifies it as a near-Earth object (NEO),

Earlier this month, an amateur astronomer stumbled upon what appeared to be a newly discovered near-Earth object (NEO). The “asteroid,” designated 2018 CN41, came alarmingly close to Earth — closer than the Moon’s orbit.