The discovery of a new asteroid this month has turned out to be Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster launched by SpaceX in 2018.

SpaceX launched Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster into space, sending it on an unexpected journey beyond Earth. The car, with a mannequin dubbed "Starman" at the wheel, was meant to orbit the Sun, and it's been cruising through space ever since.

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.

The Tesla Roadster, launched by SpaceX in 2018, was mistakenly identified as a near-Earth asteroid, raising concerns over space debris tracking.

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

The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., officially registered the new space rock Jan. 2, saying it was spotted hurling through the final frontier roughly 150,000 miles from Earth, according

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