Astronomers Move Fast After Finding Nearby Asteroid, Then Realize It’s a Red Sports Car

Astronomers Move Fast After Finding Nearby Asteroid, Then Realize It’s a Red Sports Car

THE SIGNAL

A strange “asteroid” orbiting the Earth even closer than the moon sent scientists at the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, scrambling.
The institution, which is based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, announced the unusual find on Jan. 2, after a citizen scientist discovered the anomalous object.
They named it “2018 CN41,” according to Astronomy.com.

Closer than 150,000 miles to our planet, the “rock” was deemed a near-Earth object needing careful watch, considering its potential to one day enter the atmosphere.
But less than a day later, the scientists would be palming their faces as they published an editorial update clarifying what all the fuss was apparently about.

“The designation …

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