The wannabe asteroid, announced on Jan. 2 as 2018 CN41, is actually a Tesla Roadster launched into space years ago by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The company sent the car (with a spacesuit-clad mannequin called "Starman" in the driver's seat) into a long orbit around the sun in 2018 as the first payload of the company's Falcon Heavy rocket.

Less than 24 hours after the Minor Planet Center announced a new asteroid, it said the object was actually Musk's electric car launched into space as payload on a rocket.

Catch Tallahassee Astronomical Society’s free planetarium show “February Skies over Tallahassee,” at the Fogg Planetarium on Feb. 1.

Astronomers announced the discovery of a new near-Earth asteroid, which turned out to be Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster launched in 2018. The car, initially thought to be an asteroid, was later identified as Musk's space junk after investigation.

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

Musk launched his personal Tesla Roadster into space on February 6, 2018, as a test payload for the Falcon Heavy rocket.