SpaceX компанийн пуужингаар сансарт илгээсэн Tesla Roadster автомашин сонирхогч одон орон судлаачдын дунд багагүй төөрөгдөл үүсгэжээ.
2018 оны хоёрдугаар сарын 6-нд SpaceX-ийн Falcon Heavy пуужингаар “Starman” нэртэй манекены хамт сансарт хөөргөсөн Tesla Roadster автомашин өдгөө Нарыг тойрон эргэж байна. Илон Маск жирийн нэгэн ачаа илгээхийн оронд өөрийн хувийн улаан өнгийн Tesla Roadster-ыг сонгосон нь тухайн үедээ олны анхаарлыг ихэд татсан юм. Уг автомашин нь сансарт David Bowie-ийн дууг тоглуулж, Ангараг гаригийн орбитыг чиглэн аяллаа эхлүүлсэн түүхтэй.
Саяхан Туркийн нэгэн сонирхогч одон орон судлаач сансрын уудамд ажиглалт хийх явцдаа үл танигдах биетийг илрүүлж, түүнийг Дэлхий рүү чиглэж буй астероид хэмээн андуурснаар багагүй шуугиан дэгдээжээ. Харвард-Смитсоны нэрэмжит Одон орон судлалын төвийн дэргэдэх Бага гаригийн төвөөс уг биетийг Дэлхийд ойрхон биет хэмээн бүртгэж авсан ч ердөө 17 цагийн дараа уг объект нь Илон Маскийн хөөргөсөн Tesla Roadster болохыг тогтоож, бүртгэлээс хассан байна.
Өнөөдрийн байдлаар уг автомашин Дэлхийгээс 81,713,000 гаруй милийн зайд, цагт 14,226 миль хурдтайгаар аялж байна. Уг хөлөг нийт 5.5 удаа Нарыг тойрч, энэ хугацаанд “Space Oddity” болон “Life On Mars” дуунуудыг сая гаруй удаа тоглуулсан гэх тооцоолол бий. Хэдийгээр зарим судалгаагаар уг автомашин ирээдүйд Дэлхийн агаар мандалд орж ирж болзошгүй гэж үздэг ч энэ нь сая сая жилийн дараа тохиолдох үйл явдал бөгөөд Дэлхийн оршин суугчдад ямар нэгэн аюул учруулахгүй юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Remember the Tesla Roadster that Elon Musk launched into space? One amateur astronomer has spotted it and it’s caused him some concern.
If you cast your mind back to 2018, you’ll recall the magnificent sight of a Tesla Roadster heading into orbit on the back of a SpaceX rocket.
In the years since, plenty have tracked the EV’s trajectory as it orbited Earth.
Along the way, one amateur astronomer caused some panic due to a mix-up.
This Tesla Roadster became spaceborne eight years ago
History was made on February 6 2018, when a Tesla Roadster was launched into space.
With an astronaut named ‘Starman’ in the drivers seat, the Roadster was strapped onto the back of a SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket.
Usually test flights of new rockets would contain ‘mass simulators’ in the form of concrete or steel blocks.
But that didn’t appeal to Elon Musk.
“That seemed extremely boring,” Musk wrote in a previous Instagram post.
“Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel.
“The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.”
In the years since, practically every facet of this amazing voyage has been covered, from the soundtrack of David Bowie blasting in Starman’s helmet to the possibility of the Roadster hitting Earth.
Which neatly brings us onto the story of one amateur astronomer who caused quite a stir.
How an amateur astronomer caused a fair bit of panic
When you’re an amateur astronomer mapping the skies, a red car isn’t going to appear evidently clear to you – it’ll just look like a tiny dot.
So it’s understandable why this Turkish man was panicked when he spotted what appeared to be an asteroid heading towards Earth.
“To a telescope, an artificial object and a rock in the same orbit look pretty similar without a lot of detailed follow-up investigation,” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, told Smithsonian magazine.
The Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts logged the discovery.
Given that it was less than 150,000 miles from Earth, it was qualified as a near-Earth object, meaning it was worth monitoring.
The idea of an asteroid hitting the Earth is always going to provoke some feelings of unease, as demonstrated by Hollywood films like Deep Impact and Armageddon.
But within 17 hours of logging the discovery, the Minor Planet Center had to delete it from its records after realizing it was a car.
This isn’t the first case of mistaken identity either, with at least four spacecraft added and deleted from MPC’s record books between 2020 and 2022, Astronomy.com reported.
Where is the Tesla Roadster now?
One element of the story is accurate, to an extent, and that’s the notion that the Roadster could eventually collide with the Earth.
Well, we say collide – it’ll almost entirely vaporize upon entering the atmosphere, posing no risk to anyone on the ground.
And we’re talking about millions of years away.
But at this moment in time, where exactly is the Roadster and its spaceman driver?
At the time of this article being written, it is more than 81,713,000 miles from Earth, travelling towards us at a speed of 14,226 miles per hour, according to whereisroadster.com.
In the years since it was launched, it has completed 5.5395 orbits of the Sun, and played Space Oddity 838,320 times and Life On Mars 1,129,601 times.
It’s covered enough distance to drive all of the roads on Earth 104.6 times.
Wowzer.
History of the Tesla Roadster in Space
February 6, 2018:Elon Musk’s personal cherry-red Tesla Roadster is launched aboard SpaceX’s maiden Falcon Heavy test flight, with the mannequin ‘Starman’ in the driver’s seat.
February 2018:After leaving Earth orbit, the Roadster is placed into a heliocentric orbit around the Sun, crossing the paths of Earth and Mars.
August 2019:The Roadster completes its first orbit around the Sun, marking roughly 18 months in deep space.
October 2020:The Roadster makes a distant flyby of Mars at around 5 million miles, with the planet’s gravity having little effect on its trajectory.
January 2, 2025:An amateur astronomer in Turkey mistakes the Roadster for a newly discovered near-Earth asteroid, prompting astronomers to temporarily designate it as 2018 CN41.
January 3, 2025:Astronomers identify the object as Musk’s Tesla Roadster, withdraw the asteroid designation, and confirm there is no threat to Earth.
