Astronomers mistook a car SpaceX blasted into space years ago as an asteroid. The brief mix-up highlights the sometimes ...

Space agencies have systems in place to spot, track, and forecast the future orbits of potentially hazardous asteroids.

Scientists have found two unusual objects in deep space. One is so big it could fit 21 Jupiters inside but is neither a star nor a planet.

But more recently, the car spawned a high-profile case of mistaken identity as space observers mistook it for an asteroid. Several observations of the vehicle, gathered by sweeping surveys of the ...

The mix-ups highlight difficulties with tracking objects in deep space — a problem exacerbated by the growing number of human-made objects getting jettisoned into the ether. Objects traversing ...

The mix-ups highlight difficulties with tracking objects in deep space — a problem exacerbated by the growing number of human-made objects getting jettisoned into the ether. Objects traversing ...

It was a remarkable case of mistaken identity. But it was far from the first, as a host of similar cases have troubled astronomers. The mix-ups highlight difficulties with tracking objects in deep ...