this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2025
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Astronomy

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Astronomers just deleted an asteroid because it turned out to be Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster (www.astronomy.com)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Tracking doesn't necessarily have to be lost for this kind of thing to happen. The Rosetta spacecraft was accidentally given a provisional asteroid designation in 2007.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)#Deep_space_manoeuvres