Less than 24 hours after the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the discovery of a new asteroid, they said it was actually Musk's car.

The Minor Planet Center seemingly mistook Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster for a small body in space earlier this month, much to the fascination of the billionaire.

The case of mistaken identity was quickly resolved, but astronomers say it shows the need for transparency around craft in deep space.

It doesn't matter what Musk really meant with this salute. Robotaxis are exclusively a product for large urban areas, and that population largely didn't like it at all.

Mr Musk, who is head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Donald Trump, also made a gesture at a presidential rally on Monday that some have interpreted as a Nazi salute. He has disputed the claims, writing on X: "The 'everyone is Hitler' act is sooo tired."

Musk launched his personal Tesla Roadster into space on February 6, 2018, as a test payload for the Falcon Heavy rocket.

The newly discovered asteroid, named 2018 CN41, turned out to be a Tesla launched into space by SpaceX in 2018.

A brand new mysterious 'asteroid' is causing confusion after it was spotted and submitted by an amateur astronomer, before being designated 2018 CN41. It was less than 150,000 miles (240,000 km) away from Planet Earth which qualifies it as a near-Earth object (NEO),