In this bumper episode, Payel and Michelle discuss 6 different papers in a vain attempt to cover as much of the last month’s papers as possible. This Christmas cracker of a podcast is thus a little longer than usual. In the New Year, we aim to deliver podcasts every other week so we can keep them to 30 minutes, while also delivering as many papers as possible!

This month, we discuss ultra-diffuse galaxies, the globular cluster system of Omega Centauri and Nephele, the plane of satellites problem, and a few cool results from JWST on the eve of its Christmas day launch anniversary! Enjoy, and we’ll be back in 2025.

Papers discussed this month:

The multiple classes of ultra-diffuse galaxies: Can we tell them apart? – Maria-Luisa Buzzo et al.
Abundance ties: Nephele and the globular cluster population accreted with ω Cen. Based on APOGEE DR17 and Gaia EDR3 – Giulia Pagnini et al.

A New Rarity Assessment of the `Disk of Satellites’: the Milky Way System Is the Exception Rather than the Rule in the ΛCDM Cosmology – Chanoul Seo et al.

New tools for studying planarity in galaxy satellite systems: Milky Way satellite planes are consistent with ΛCDM – E. Uzeirbegovic et al.

A grand-design spiral galaxy 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang with JWST – Rashi Jain & Yogesh Wadadekar

In-situ formation of star clusters at z > 7 via galactic disk fragmentation; shedding light on ultra-compact clusters and overmassive black holes seen by JWST – Lucio Meyer et al.