[Tench_Coxe]

Heavy Metal Opening Scene

[ArcadeQuarters]

Why is it throwing up?

[TonyM]

Is this a joke or did a new DEI hire astronomer come up with this?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Hurling” through space, Natalie? I think I’m going to hurl.

[Bobalu]

Some day people will travel to see that car, it will have to be under some sort of legal protection to keep it from being tampered with.. The same will be true of the landing sites on the moon... they will be protected historical areas as will the wreckage of early Mars probes.

[Gene Eric]

was it traveling at ludicrous speed?

[grey_whiskers]

Harvard. Because Smarter Than You.™

[Tom Tetroxide]

If you want to know where Starman in the Tesla Roadster is currently located check here.
https://www.whereisroadster.com

[mazz44]

Bullshit! What a show!

[Tired of Taxes]

I expected this story to be Babylon Bee.

[alexander_busek]

The elite organization, located at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, then gave the object an official name: “2018 CN41.”

Should have called it "TSLA 10."

Regards,

[minnesota_bound]

About 66 million years from now the new intelligent life discovers that a vehicle of some sort hit the earth wiping out almost all life. They discovered a thin layer of lithium in the earth that was the result of the impact....

[metmom]

The ultimate source isn’t The Babylon Bee is it?

Cause it sure reads like a headline they’d write.

[BitWielder1]

Just track all the untracked objects and they won't be untracked anymore.
Keep it in the database, with a note "SPACE JUNK" so you don't have to be surprised again.
I find it hard to believe that one extra object will make it harder to track millions of others.

[linMcHlp]

A rock built by Boeing, also happened by:

[Nifty]

Trust the science!!

[telescope115]

I remember that well! It was amazing to watch as the payload fairings fell away and the Tesla with the dummy astronaut had the Earth for a backdrop. Fantastic!

[maddog55]

Trust science...right.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The next “close” encounter between the earth and Starman will be January 11, 2047 at around 9:35 PM UTC, when it will pass within 3,000,000 miles, or more than 12 times the distance to the moon. And it is possible that rich private adventurers may take a ride in a spaceship to see it then.

It looks like a misidentification by the reporting observatory. That happens. According to NASA’s very reliable and very accurate Jet Propulsion Laboratory on January 2, Starman was no closer than 232,000,000 miles from earth, more than twice the distance from the sun to the earth. It is possible that because the observation time was brief, and earth and Starman are on opposite sides of similar orbits its angular velocity made it appear closer (fitting an orbit) than it actually was. Preliminary reports of asteroids to the minor planet center are more BOLO (”be on the look out”) than arrest warrants. Before it was “confirmed” more observations would have been necessary. The posting was to obtain confirmatory observations.

The Harvard-Smithsonian center became the central clearing house for “astronomical telegrams” to coordinate observations around the world at the start of the last century. It was a voluntary association, funded with privately donated money, and has proven very useful. Harvard got the job by default, it was never sought. They had the world’s most productive observatory at the time, and observatories were sending them telegrams, so why not share?

[HereInTheHeartland]

“ it was spotted hurling through the final frontier”

It’s still waiting to charge its batteries.