Researchers have admitted to mistakenly identifying Elon Musk's car as a near-Earth asteroid, highlighting the importance accurate space tracking.

An object that was incorrectly identified by an amateur astronomer as an asteroid has turned out to be a Tesla Roadster. Earlier this month, on Jan. 2, a new asteroid called 2018 CN41 was announced by the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

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.