At a Glance

Researchers say the Tesla Roadster launched into space will take a beating from space dust and cosmic radiation. The convertible may make a return trip past the Earth within the next few years.

Elon Musk’s cherry red convertible made headlines after SpaceX launched it into orbit last week, butit may be unrecognizable if we ever get a chance to see it again.

Manned by a mannequindubbed"Starman," the Tesla Roadster is cruising toward Mars., coming close enough to possibly be observedwith a telescope, said Tomohiko Narita,College of the Holy Cross chair of physics and owner of .

Though the car'strajectory is still unclear, it’s certain that itwon’t look the same if and when it returns.

According to Narita, space dust moving at high speeds are likely to batter the sports car and reduce it to an “inert piece of space junk.”

“Those little motes of dust, which are mostly just fractions of grams, are going to be ,” NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts senior scientific advisor Ron Turner told Popular Science. “They’ll vaporize and scatter the paint and make nice little pits in the metal.”

Radiation will also play a part in beating up the Tesla.

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“Anything with plastic or rubber will degrade because of cosmic ray radiation, energy from cosmic rays floating around in space that tends to disrupt chemical bonds,” Narita told the magazine. “Radiation is really tough on carbon bonds, like those present in plastics and rubber. “The metal structure itself should be fine and last for hundreds of thousands of years.”

Though the researchers are certain the tiny particles will be hitting the car, it’s unlikely the vehicle will crash into larger objects like spacecraft or comets.

“If it does by coincidence hit an asteroid, that's the end of that,” Narita said. “But it’s my speculation that the chance of that is pretty small.”

The car has already begun drifting further into deep space, becoming even harder to spot with a telescope.

Planetary Science senior editor Emily Lakdawalla tweeted that and the fact that it has no intended trajectory outside of going “as far as possible.”

“At this point, it’s basically an asteroid,” she added.

Narita suggests that in roughly two and a half years, the car could loop around the sun before returning to roughly the same area it was launched from. He also says we may be able to spot it from Earth within five years.

“Someday, maybe someone will find the relic of what appears to be a car or a hunk of metal with shredded rubber and destroyed plastic covering it,” Narita said.