Colin Stuart
Science communicator
Colin Stuart is an astronomy author and speaker.
Recent articles by Colin Stuart
What could dark matter be? Five key theories
Biggest stars in the Universe and how to see them
Use our star charts to help you point your telescope at 4 mindblowing hypergiants.
9 things we still don't know about the Universe
Some of the cosmic mysteries eluding explanation.
Galaxy collisions are chaotic but crucial. Without them, humanity might not exist
Galactic mergers seem devastatingly violent, but without them the Universe as we know it – including life on Earth – might not exist.
How are black holes formed? Astronomers are on the brink of discovering the secret
We’re on the edge of discovering where these monstrous gravity sinkholes come from.
Why you age slower in space, and why travelling close to the speed of light lets you leap forward in time
Astronauts age slower in space compared to people on Earth. In fact, if you could travel fast enough through space you could time travel.
VY Canis Majoris, one of the biggest stars in the Universe, is so huge you could fit 3 billion Suns inside it
Just how big is VY Canis Majoris and how does its size compare to that of the Sun and planet Earth?
What is a black hole?
What is a black hole made of? Is there anything on the other side? How do we know they exist?
How black holes were first discovered
The story of how black holes went from theory to discovery.
Hypergiant stars are the behemoths of the cosmos
New research is uncovering the weird workings of the largest stars in the Universe.
Star UY Scuti is so big, you could fit 5 billion Suns inside it
Is UY Scuti really the biggest star? And how does it compare to the size of our Solar System?
How can a black hole give off light?
If black holes are black, how can they give off light?
Can a black hole die?
We can predict the fate of black holes by understanding a process called Hawking Radiation.
Gravity bends light, space and time. Here's how
A guide to the force known as gravity and how it affects light, space and time, and how it theoretically makes time travel possible.
Astronomy explained | What is Hawking radiation?
Particles appearing on the edge of a black hole could cause it to lose mass over time.
The Final Parsec Problem explained
There is an unsolved problem surrounding the merging of supermassive black holes in colliding galaxies.
What is nuclear pasta?
Strange shapes of spaghetti and other pasta types thread their way around neutron stars.
Neutron stars explained
Neutron stars are some of the densest objects in the Universe.
4 questions James Webb Space Telescope is poised to answer
What mysteries might JWST solve over its decade-long voyage of astronomical discovery?
How white dwarfs are born
How a Sun-like star becomes a compact Earth-sized ball as it runs out of fuel.
What will happen to our Solar System in the future?
Will the planets will survive our Sun’s far-off fate of swelling out into the Solar System as a red giant?
How do we measure distance in space?
How do we know how far away objects are in space, and what units of measurements are used in astronomy for determining these distances?