Welcome to the StarXiv! A monthly podcast that delves into the latest astronomy papers & results from the arXiv.
Hosted by Michelle, Payel, and Nicole.



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Episode 46 – the origin of life and globular clusters, and local little red dots
In this week’s episode, Michelle and Payel discuss whether comets are able to deliver prebiotic feedstock molecules in the high concentrations required for prebiotic chemistry, whether merger-driven and secular-drive starburst dwarf galaxies, whether ultra-diffuse galaxies could be the missing link for globulater cluster formation, and whether examining local little red dots can shed light on…
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Episode 45 – r-process origins, moons of Uranus, and systmatic uncertainties
In this week’s episode, Michelle and Payel discuss whether neuron-star mergers are even needed to explain r-process abundances, the origin of the inner moons of Uranus, and the impact of systematic uncertainties on the Hubble tension and gamma-ray searches for dark matter. Tune in below, or on Spotify and Apple. Check out this week’s papers…
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Episode 6: Einstein rings, black holes and ringed galaxies
In this episode, Payel and Michelle delve into the arXiv and discuss standard sirens, gravitational lenses, a very metal poor stellar stream and a cosmic bullseye! Candidate intermediate-mass black hole discovered in an extremely young low-metallicity cluster in the tadpole galaxy KUG 1138+327 – Wang & Ott Spinning spectral sirens: Robust cosmological measurement using mass-spin…
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Episode 5: Galaxies, gas accretion & Aliens
Arriving in your ears on February 10th, our latest installment includes transfer learning to detect low surface brightness galaxies, hot and cold gas accretion, an unusual finding in a filament, details of our proto-Galaxy, and the search for intelligent life! DES to HSC: Detecting low surface brightness galaxies in the Abell 194 cluster using transfer…
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Episode 4: January 2025
In this month’s edition, Michelle and Payel dive into the New Year with papers on machine learning, star formation in low mass galaxies and working out just how early in the Universe planets can form. Papers discussed this month: Habitable Worlds Formed at Cosmic Dawn Whalen et al. The puzzle of isolated and quenched dwarf…
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Episode 3: December
In this episode, Payel and Michelle discuss six papers covering topics like ultra-diffuse galaxies, the Omega Centauri cluster, and insights from JWST. The extended podcast aims to explore diverse research while transitioning to biweekly episodes in the New Year, maintaining a 30-minute format. They’ll return in 2025.
The Hosts
Payel Das & Michelle Collins 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. Nicole Buckley is a PhD student at the University of Surrey. She loves reading papers!
Keep in touch
We’re thrilled to have you here! If you want to interact with us, you can subscribe to our website, follow us on social media, or send us an email. You can also listen to us through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. We also provide a direct link to our RSS feed.
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