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Astronomers delete asteroid because it turned out to be Tesla Roadster

astronomy.com

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Re: Astronomers delete asteroid because it turned out to be Tesla Roadster

#31

Post by grajaganDev »

perihelions wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I buy into the sensationalism behind this story. We're tracking billions[0] of asteroids in interplanetary space, and you say that it's a data-processing hazard that the half-dozen or so deep-space anthropogenic objects aren't submitted to a mandatory international database for de-confliction? That doesn't pass the smell test. [0] https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/01/1108643/vera-c-r...

>I'm not sure I buy into the sensationalism behind this story.

Agreed - Elon gets clicks especially given his recent "involvement" with the US government.

Re: Astronomers delete asteroid because it turned out to be Tesla Roadster

#32

Post by vkou »

grajaganDev wrote: post #31
perihelions wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I buy into the sensationalism behind this story. We're tracking billions[0] of asteroids in interplanetary space, and you say that it's a data-processing hazard that the half-dozen or so deep-space anthropogenic objects aren't submitted to a mandatory international database for de-confliction? That doesn't pass the smell test. [0] https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/01/1108643/vera-c-r...

>I'm not sure I buy into the sensationalism behind this story. Agreed - Elon gets clicks especially given his recent "involvement" with the US government.

When you, as a lobbyist and supplier, are getting an office built for you in the white house, that's a little bit closer than being 'involved'.

Re: Astronomers delete asteroid because it turned out to be Tesla Roadster

#33

Post by crusty »

namrog84 wrote: post #30
throw310822 wrote: post #26

> announced the discovery of an unusual asteroid, designated 2018 CN41 Can someone explain why in 2025 they discover an asteroid which gets designated as "2018" and then they delete it when it turns out that it was an object launched in space precisely in 2018?

https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/ It's initially given a temporary name prior to the now official name. 2018 CN41 Means it's the 41st object identified in the first half of February in 2018. A is first half of jan. B is 2nd half. Etc.. then the iteration in that section

I think the question is, how does the 41st object to be discovered in 2018 get that name in 2025?

Clearly there's a missing link to this, as in some guy in a field "finds" an object, submits it, it gets added, it gets identified, it gets removed, and it's actual designation is then used in write-ups as if that name were the one in use before it was identified as not being an object discovered in 2025.

For accuracy, or should say 2025 CN2 (or whatever), aka 2018 CN41, was removed from the database.

Re: Astronomers delete asteroid because it turned out to be Tesla Roadster

#35

Post by wbl »

crusty wrote: post #33
namrog84 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/ It's initially given a temporary name prior to the now official name. 2018 CN41 Means it's the 41st object identified in the first half of February in 2018. A is first half of jan. B is 2nd half. Etc.. then the iteration in that section

I think the question is, how does the 41st object to be discovered in 2018 get that name in 2025? Clearly there's a missing link to this, as in some guy in a field "finds" an object, submits it, it gets added, it gets identified, it gets removed, and it's actual designation is then used in write-ups as if that name were the one in use before it was identified as not being an object discovered in 2025. For accuracy, o…

I'm not an expert but my understanding is it takes multiple observations to pin down an orbit and be sure it isn't an existing object. Those observations can be very chance driven.

Re: Astronomers delete asteroid because it turned out to be Tesla Roadster

#36

Post by simne »

throw310822 wrote: post #26

> announced the discovery of an unusual asteroid, designated 2018 CN41 Can someone explain why in 2025 they discover an asteroid which gets designated as "2018" and then they delete it when it turns out that it was an object launched in space precisely in 2018?

To determine object, in most cases need and enough, to determine it's orbit. In case of Near Earth Object, most interest parameters, when it was near Earth and period to next approach.

Looks like, astronomer calculated from single point, this object was approached in 2018, which is launch year, because Roadster don't have long running engines (none of space sails or ion engines), so it's orbit don't changed much after 2018.

- Ion engines or space sails could work many years, so it will not be easy to discover start point from just one known point of current orbit.

Re: Astronomers delete asteroid because it turned out to be Tesla Roadster

#38

Post by therealpygon »

Reason077 wrote: post #9

Seems like an odd move to just delete it. Is it any less worthy of being tracked because it's man made? Wouldn't adding it to the database at least reduce the chance of the same mistake being made again by other astronomers? Isn't this, like other space junk in such orbits, effectively an "anthropogenic asteroid"? Why not just add them in with a special tag or naming convention to indicate that they're man-made?

It is being tracked under the correct designation “2018-017A”, therefore they are deleting an erroneous report that was temporarily assigned the designation that was deleted. What makes you think they “stopped tracking” it?

Re: Astronomers delete asteroid because it turned out to be Tesla Roadster

#39

Post by simne »

perihelions wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I buy into the sensationalism behind this story. We're tracking billions[0] of asteroids in interplanetary space, and you say that it's a data-processing hazard that the half-dozen or so deep-space anthropogenic objects aren't submitted to a mandatory international database for de-confliction? That doesn't pass the smell test. [0] https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/01/1108643/vera-c-r...

> We're tracking billions[0] of asteroids

This is exaggeration. Really, this type of astronomy is very underfunded, so we're just approach state, when will track just most dangerous objects, which number is just about thousand, just because of budget limitation.

Re: Astronomers delete asteroid because it turned out to be Tesla Roadster

#40

Post by johnnyanmac »

indus wrote: post #34

I read the headline incorrectly as hard delete But looks they just soft deleted the entry in their database.

Would have been interesting if we did just throw a satellite at it to deflect it's course.

Then I remembered we're still probably decades from being able to do such things on demand.

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