The Tesla Roadster and the mannequin "Starman" on the SpaceX Falcon Heavy upper stage, with Earth in background. SpaceXAt the beginning of the year, scientists at the Minor Planet Center at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian, logged the discovery of an asteroid identified by an amateur astronomer. Within a day, however, they deleted the item, called 2018 CN41, because they realized it wasnt a natural object: It was a Tesla strapped to part of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.The designation 2018 CN41, announced in MPEC 2025-A38 on Jan 2, 2025, UT, is being deleted, reads the retraction notice. The next day it was pointed out the orbit matches an artificial object 2018-017A, Falcon Heavy Upper stage with the Tesla roadster.Now, the obvious question: How did a Tesla end up in space? The vehiclepreviously owned and driven by Elon Musk, CEO of both Tesla and SpaceXwas launched withFalcon Heavy on the rockets first test flight in 2018 to simulate the mass of a payload. Firmly attached to the Falcon Heavys upper stage, the car launched into orbit around Earth for six hours, then shifted into a solar orbit, which will remain stable for several million years, according to NASA. In the car sits a mannequin named Starman, and the sound system launched blasting Space Oddity by David Bowie.The car is now one of several human-made objects hurtling through deep space. But typically, the work of the Minor Planet Center (MPC) doesnt deal with artificial things. The MPC is instead responsible for tracking naturally occurring, small bodies in the solar system, like asteroids and comets. Citizen scientists can use the organizations publicly available catalog of observations to discover new objects.However, because there are more and more artificial objects launched and their observations incidentally end up in our catalog, distinguishing these Earthly creations from natural objects is not trivial, Peter Veres, an astronomer at the MPC, tells Smithsonian magazine. We rely on a catalog of artificial objects and a third-party software (sat_id by Bill Gray) that can identify most of the artificial objects, he adds.The recent hullabaloo started when an amateur astronomer from Turkey reported a small, previously unidentified near-Earth object from 2018 data. The object wasnt listed in sat_id, nor did it orbit Eartha feature that would normally be a sign of an artificial object, according to Veres. As a result, it appeared to be an asteroid.I was ecstatic and submitted the identification, the amateur astronomer tells Astronomys Mark Zastrow. The objects orbit around the sun brought it less than 150,000 miles from Earth, which is closer than the moonmaking it an object worth keeping an eye on.To a telescope, an artificial object and a rock in the same orbit look pretty similar without a lot of detailed follow-up investigation, Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics, tells Smithsonian magazine.But after submitting the finding, the amateur astronomer started having doubts. McDowell quickly figured out it was the Falcon upper stage, he adds to Astronomy. Being slightly embarrassed that I might have caused unnecessary excitement I quickly went to MPCs help desk and let them know the [near-Earth object] I just submitted was a rocket stage.Veres says the search for asteroids and comets isnt impacted by artificial objects in low Earth orbit, such as satellites. However, the artificial objects that can change their orbits, are traveling far from Earth or approach our planet decades after launching into distant space can be more difficult to differentiate from natural celestial bodies.The Teslas orbit is computed by NASA because of its notoriety, but most deep-space orbits of artificial objects are not disclosed, per Astronomy. The presence of these objects messes up the statisticshow many risky asteroids are out there and so on, McDowell tells Smithsonian magazine. I would say its a nuisance but not a hugely serious problemyet. But as space activity increases, it can become one.Such cases of mistaken identity remain relatively rare occurrenceslast year, submitters used the same MPC database to successfully discover 47 near-Earth objects, Veres says. Even still, this is not the first time that artificial objects have fooled their way into the MPCs minor planet database. For example, in 2020, the MPC deleted near-Earth object MPEC U58 after scientists realized its orbit matched that of a spacecraft booster from NASAs Lucy mission to Jupiters Trojan asteroids. Another identification turned out to be the Spektr-RG X-ray observatory, launched by Russia and Germany in 2019.This recent incident underscores the pressing need for improved communication and transparency among space agencies, private companies and nations, says Veres. Unfortunately, not all entities share their data in a timely manneror at all. A more collaborative approach to space traffic management and data sharing would significantly enhance the ability to differentiate between natural and artificial objects, benefiting both the scientific community and the safety of Earths orbital environment.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.