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Want to follow Elon Musk’s Roadster live in space? There’s a website to let you do so!

Credits: Screenshot YouTube / SpaceX

Just like you can follow Starman’s adventures live on YouTube thanks to two cameras on board the space car, there is also a website that allows you to follow the trajectory of Elon Musk’s Roadster in space. 

A few weeks ago, Space X successfully sent Elon Musk’s red Roadster into space, with “Starman” on board, which is now orbiting around the sun. The goal is ambitious: to reach the orbit of Mars and remain around the red planet. Many people are now very curious to know where the car actually is, with it’s now famous passenger, dressed in a SpaceX spacesuit. Well now you can satisfy your curiosity! NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are in fact publishing data on the comings and goings of the Roadster. You can follow its trajectory on the website whereisroadster.com.

This website tells us that Starman is now around 4 million miles from the Earth, moving away from our planet at a speed of 7,388 miles per hour. It will continue to move in orbit around the sun, passing close to the Earth in 2091. Of course, this prediction is made assuming that the Roadster will survive that long in space, facing down micrometeorites and radiation. Could the Roadster one day come home to Earth to die?

A group of researchers specialising in orbital dynamics recently analysed the orbit that would hypothetically be followed by the space car for millions of years into the future. Although it is impossible to map this orbit with precision, as the environment is subject to change, there is in fact a chance that one day, the Tesla will return and crash into a much older Earth (with a 6% chance of this happening in the next million years).

Remember also that a few days ago, a Californian astrophotographer managed to capture images of the Roaster during its voyage around the sun.

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