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PODCAST

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papers

Michelle and Payel

Hello! Welcome to the StarXiv, hosted by Dr Michelle Collins and Dr Payel Das. This is a biweekly podcast that delves into the latest astronomy papers & results from the arXiv. Michelle and Payel are astronomers at the University of Surrey. They love research, but struggle to find time to read a lot of papers. They’re hoping this podcast fixes that. The beautiful logo is designed by Izzy Gray, a PhD student currently studying at the University of Surrey.

science astronomy

All Episodes

38:28

Episode 44 - asteroid impacts, chemical evolution and...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/09/29

In this week's episode, Michelle and NEWLY MINTED PhD, Dr Nicole, discuss papers including predictions for 10-metre plus asteroid impact rates on Earth and other planets, the abundance of life-critical Phosphorus in Galactic stars, age dating giants with the carbon-to-Nitrogen ratio and whether quasi-stars can explain the properties of little red dots! Tune in below, or on Spotify and Apple.Check out this weeks papers belowStellar ages from [C/N] in giant stars: applicability and limitations - Giada

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30:47

Episode 43 - early dark energy, the fate of Venusian...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/09/01

In this week's episode, Michelle and Payel ask whether early dark energy leaves a detectable imprint on large-scale structure, and whether Venus once had a moon — and what might have happened to it. They also each pick a paper using forbidden line emission to probe galaxy evolution, including one testing whether some extremely metal-poor galaxies are impostors.

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31:16

Episode 42 - disk clumps, triple systems and an...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/08/18

Michelle and Nicole sit down to discuss the latest papers from the arXiv, including the discovery of a globular cluster stream outside the Milky Way, how disk clumps migrate to the centres of galaxies, a unique and cool pulsar hierarchical triple system and a weird, metal poor star in the Milky Way disk. Tune in below, on Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.Check out this weeks papers belowEvidence for the First Globular Cluster Stellar Stream beyond the Milky Way - Julie Kiel

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32:52

Episode 41 - the age of the Universe, AI and...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/08/04

Payel and Michelle delve into another group of wonderful papers on the astronomy arxiv! They discuss dating the Universe, comparing 2025 large language models in their ability to assist with literature views, telling apart exocomets and giant companions, early signatures of secular evolution in disk galaxies, and the abundance of data to come from Vera Rubin. You can read more about the papers below:Cosmic CORALS: Timing the Universe with high-z star clusters - Elena Tomasetti et al.AI's Capability

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30:50

Episode 40 - globular clusters, extended disks, high...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/07/22

In this episode, Michelle and Payel discuss results from the searches for extra-terrestrial life, a natural mechanism for producing light element variations in globular clusters, a typical galaxy at z>10 and the origin of Andromeda's extended stellar disk.And take a look at the papers belowGlobular cluster abundance patterns inherited from giant molecular clouds - William McClymont et al.Project Hephaistos -- IV. James Webb Space Telescope Observations of Two Dyson Sphere Candidates - Erik

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38:35

Episode 39 – data-driven stellar population studies,...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/06/23

In this episode, Payel and Nicole discuss machine learning methods to to transform composite galaxy spectra and determine key features of galaxy evolution. They also examine new observations of the Centarus cluster with JWST, closing the loop on AGN feedback across multiple radial scales. Finally, they discuss new solar observations that shed new light on the formation of solar flare ribbons. A novel data-driven approach to extract stellar population properties from galaxy spectra using absorption

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35:44

Episode 38 - merging galaxies, exploding stars and...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/06/08

In this episode, Michelle and Nicole discuss machine learning methods to classify merging galaxies and different classes of supernova. They also look into whether planetary engulfment can explain unsual chemical signatures in some binary systems, and dive deep into some beautiful MUSE data for a spiral galaxy at redshift 0.09. Check it out below, on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts!Check out the papers we featured belowA Deep Study of the Spiral Galaxy W2246f - Evelyn J

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32:52

Episode 37 - Lunar craters, primordial black holes &...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/05/25

In this episode, Michelle and Payel talk about the asymmetry in the number of craters across the moon, using microlensing to find primordial black holes, tracing the growth of disk galaxies since z~1, and using machine learning to detect group galaxies merging with massive clusters. Check out the papers we discussed below:Lunar ejecta as the missing piece to resolving lunar cratering asymmetry - Hailiang Li et al.AMPM II. — A Lunar-Mass Primordial Black Hole Microlensing Candidate in the Milky Way

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33:17

Episode 36 - Dead Earths, magnetic fields and...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/05/11

In this episode, Michelle and Nicole discuss primordial magnetic fields, Galactic merger memory, the origin of Venus's carbon dioxide rich atmosphere and using Galactic stars to predict extragalactic abundances. Listen below, on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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34:08

Episode 35 - More Milky Way mayhem, Fast Radio...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/04/28

In this episode, Nicole and Payel discuss an accurate dating of the Gaia-Enceladus Sausage merger with the Milky Way, a new probe of matter clustering on small scales using Fast Radio Bursts, a new analysis of the retrograde stars in the Milky Way, and a simulation perspective on the very cold disks found at high redshift by ALMA. And check out the papers below:The Last Galactic Firework: Timing the last significant merger with stars, globular clusters and 𝜔 Centauri Chervin Laporte and Matthew

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28:51

Episode 34 - The cosmic web, the ancient Milky Way,...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/04/13

In this episode, Nicole and Payel discuss a stellar system located towards the Galactic bulge, the structure of filaments in the cosmic web, the homogeneity of the chemical compositions of exoplanets born in the same disc, and the possibility of water-rich hot super Earths. Check out the papers below: The multi-age stellar populations of Terzan 5 as revealed by JWST Giorga Zullo et al.Universal Dark-matter Density Profiles of Cosmic Filaments Peng Xu et al.A Chemical Mismatch Between Young Stars and

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32:07

Episode 33 - Bananas, blueberries, planet eating...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/03/30

In this episode, Michelle and Payel delve into the story of UV bright galaxies at high redshifts, hints of population III stars, black hole binaries, planet eating stars, pulsars in Omega Centauri and whether or not the Milky Way and Andromeda will merge. Find all the links to the papers at Starxiv.com.

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31:17

Episode 32 - Ancient star clusters and growing black...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/03/16

In this episode, Michelle and Nicole were on-theme with their paper choices. They discuss whether and how stars from ancient globular clusters populate the stellar halo of the Milky Way, and look into research on growing massive black hole seeds in the smallest dwarf galaxies. Tune in here, on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts

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32:34

Episode 31 - Near Earth Objects, Little Red Dots,...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/03/02

In this episode, Michelle and Payel discuss the latest theories of little red dot formation, bursty star formation at high redshift, triple-double radio galaxies, where asteroids like Apophis come from, and how likely life might be around massive stars. Check out the episode below, on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

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27:20

Episode 30 - Direct collapse black holes, nuclear...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/02/16

In this episode, Payel and Nicole delve into more JWST discoveries and the frontier of machine learning in astronomy - an ultra-deep view of the cosmic web, machine-learning deep images to look for mergers, a direct collapse black hole explanation to Little Red Dots, machine-learning the Milky Way to reveal complex star formation histories of accreted systems, and the earliest nuclear stellar disc observed to date. Check out the papers below.An ultra-high-resolution map of (dark) matter - Diana

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32:14

Episode 29 - Exploding stars, carbon stars, and...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/01/26

In this episode, Michelle and Nicole hit the arXiv and dig into the latest on Thamnos - an ancient Milky Way merger, carbon stars in the Large Magellanic Stars, Supernova Type Ia as cosmic probes, and a little red dot that isn't a little red dot. Tune in here, on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. And check out the papers below

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33:08

Episode 28 - Fading stars, digesting planets and dark...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2026/01/12

In this episode, Michelle and Payel both dissect interesting results from varying stars, including follow up on Betelgeuse's elusive companion. They also talk about the imprints of digested and transiting stars on their hosts spectra, and an unusual lensing signal that could pose difficult questions for warm and cold dark matter. Listen below, on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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32:19

Episode 27: Making a Milky Way, searching for dwarfs,...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2025/12/22

This episode, Payel and Nicole discuss how to generate alpha-bimodalities in Milky-Way-like galaxies without major mergers or radial migration, a new search for radio emission from the elusive intermediate-mass black hole of Omega Centauri , detailed chemical DNA measurements of the oldest stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, and searching for dwarfs using HI measurements. Check out the papers we discussed below:Portrait of a Galaxy on FIRE: Is the $α$-bimodality a natural consequence of inside-out

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31:12

Episode 26: A tail of tales, little galaxies, and...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2025/12/08

This episode, Payel and Nicole discuss streamer-like structures around protostellar sources, a multiply imaged Little Red Dot with an apparent blue companion, age and metallicity of low-mass galaxies, starspots and flares, and exploring the ultra-faint dwarf Bootes I using JWST and HST. Check out the papers we discussed below:A tale of three tails: A misaligned streamer and mysterious structures around [BHB2007]1 - Aashish GuptaVENUS: When Red meets Blue -- A multiply imaged Little Red Dot with an

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42:57

Episode 25: Extragalactic exoplanets, simulating...

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy... ·

2025/11/24

This episode, Michelle, Payel, and Nicole discuss simulating individual stars, exoplanets born outside of the Milky Way, the intracluster medium as a window to past merging activity, the chemical versus kinematic thin and thick discs of the Milky Way, early formation of supermassive black holes, and galaxy mergers as cosmic ray sources.Check out the papers we discussed belowEDGE-INFERNO: How chemical enrichment assumptions impact the individual stars of a simulated ultra-faint dwarf galaxy - Eric

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34 results

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