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1. Embed this notice
   Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 04:10:06 JST Prof. Sam Lawler

   "Astronomers just deleted an asteroid because it turned out to be Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster"

   https://www.astronomy.com/science/astronomers-just-deleted-an-asteroid-because-it-turned-out-to-be-elon-musks-tesla-roadster/

   • Embed this notice
     Michael Busch (michael_w_busch@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 04:10:57 JST Michael Busch

     in reply to

     • Tillman Reuter

     @tillmanreuter @sundogplanets

     Here is the Minor Planet Mailing List from January 2; describing the case in real time: https://groups.io/g/mpml/topic/110402021#msg40127 .

     This happened before, in 2018 right after Elon Musk's marketing stunt, and the Falcon Heavy upper stage was identified and removed from the asteroid list.

     The current case was because of additional observations being reported and a cross-check initially failing to make the correct linkage.

   • Embed this notice
     Tillman Reuter (tillmanreuter@ecoevo.social)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 04:10:59 JST Tillman Reuter

     in reply to

     @sundogplanets I am still not sure if this is satire.

     Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD (ericfielding@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 04:18:52 JST Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD

     in reply to

     • Michael Busch
     • Tillman Reuter

     @michael_w_busch @tillmanreuter @sundogplanets It is important to remember that the Tesla car is still attached to the whole second stage of the Falcon Heavy. That is why it is large enough to see easily. The second stage must have a relatively low mass for its size because they burned all the fuel, so it probably behaves somewhat differently from a rocky asteroid of the same size.

   • Embed this notice
     Michael Busch (michael_w_busch@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 04:52:59 JST Michael Busch

     in reply to

     • Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD
     • Tillman Reuter

     @EricFielding @tillmanreuter @sundogplanets

     Orbit fits include non-gravitational parameters; since small asteroids and comets get pushed around by radiation pressure and outgassing.

     The non-gravitational terms are considerably larger for rocket upper stages, of course. That can contribute to failures to correctly link observations together.