Elon Musk's roadster may hit Earth, but not anytime soon

New Delhi : Elon Musk's roadster, first car to be sent in space, may return and collide with Earth in next million years, observe three scientists.

As per their observation of the car's orbit, the vehicle will end up crashing on either Earth or Venus.

There is no reason to be panicked as the chances of theory to become a reality are just 6 percent for Earth and 2.5 percent for Venus with a time frame of million years attached to it. And the fact remains that the car will never reach the surface of Earth as it will be burned in air by Earth's atmosphere.

The results, due to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, were posted this week on the pre-print site arXiv.

The Tesla's roadster was launched in space by SpaceX's vaunted Falcon Heavy rocket. The car was attached on top of the rocket with a spacesuit-wearing mannequin named "Starman."

Study authors Hanno Rein, Daniel Tamayo and David Vokrouhlicky, all experts in orbital dynamics, emphasize that it's impossible to map out precisely where Starman will go as his vehicle floats through space. The roadster is currently drifting on an elliptical orbit around the sun that repeatedly crosses the path of Mars (though the two bodies are not predicted to collide). At its farthest, the car will be 1.67 times Earth's distance from the sun.

The roadster will have a close encounter with Earth only in the year 2091.