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 42 – disk clumps, triple systems and an exciting new stream!
Michelle and Nicole review recent arXiv papers, highlighting significant findings such as a globular cluster stream outside the Milky Way, disk clump migration in galaxies, a unique pulsar triple system, and a peculiar metal-poor star in the Milky Way disk. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred platform.
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Episode 41 – the age of the Universe, AI and literature reviews, and giant companions
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…
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Episode 40 – globular clusters, extended disks, high redshift galaxies and aliens!
In this episode, Michelle and Payel explore the search for extra-terrestrial life, mechanisms for light element variations in globular clusters, characteristics of a typical galaxy at z>10, and Andromeda’s extended stellar disc origin.
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Episode 39 – data-driven stellar population studies, multi-scale AGN feedback, and solar flare ribbons
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 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
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