London - It is the first car in space, sent by a tech billionaire to orbit the sun at seven miles a second.
But Elon Musk’s bright red Tesla sports car could end up in a prang with Earth in a million years’ time, according to astronomers who have calculated its orbit.
The Paypal mogul’s car made history when he launched a rocket – the Falcon Heavy – carrying it into space, as two million people watched. A crash test dummy called Starman is strapped into the front seat.
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However, it slightly overshot its target, and a study states it will pass our planet again in 30 years, approaching at the same distance as the moon in 2091.
undefinedAn analysis by Czech and Canadian researchers shows the electric car made by Mr Musk’s company Tesla has a 6 per cent chance of colliding with Earth over the next million years.
There is nothing to be afraid of as, if it does eventually come back down to Earth, most of the vehicle would burn up en route.
The study, led by Dr Hanno Rein from Toronto University said: "Although there were several close encounters with Mars in our simulations, none of them resulted in a physical collision."
"We find that there is an approximate 6 per cent chance that the Tesla will collide with Earth and an approximate 2.5 per cent chance that it will collide with Venus within the next one million year."