I was delighted and stunned to learn that, in recognition of my work to popularise astronomy, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has renamed the asteroid formerly known as (15347) 1994 UD. It is now called (15347) Colinstuart.

A main belt asteroid, it sits between Mars and Jupiter (see above) at a distance of 2.86 astronomical units and takes 3.56 years to orbit the Sun. It was discovered on 26 October 1994 by British astronomer Brian Manning from Stakebridge near Kidderminster. According to NASA’s NEOWise survey it is 4.42 kilometres in diameter.