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 44 – asteroid impacts, chemical evolution and quasi-stars
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,…
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Episode 43 – early dark energy, the fate of Venusian moons, and the power of forbidden lines
In this episode, Michelle and Payel discuss whether early dark energy impacts large-scale structures and explore the possibility of Venus having a moon. They review papers on forbidden line emissions and galaxy evolution, including studies on extremely metal-poor galaxies. Listen on various platforms.
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Episode 32 – Ancient star clusters and growing black holes
In this episode, Michelle and Nicole discuss the role of stars from ancient globular clusters in the Milky Way’s stellar halo. They also explore research on forming massive black hole seeds within small dwarf galaxies. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred platform for more insights.

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Episode 31 – Near Earth Objects, Little Red Dots, bursty star formation and life around massive stars
In this podcast episode, Michelle and Payel discuss theories on little red dot formation, bursty star formation, and the origins of asteroids like Apophis. They also discuss the potential for life around massive stars and unusual triple-double radio galaxies.

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Episode 30 – Direct collapse black holes, nuclear stellar discs, and machine learning merger histories
In this episode, Payel and Nicole delve into more JWST discoveries and further pushing the frontier of machine learning in astronomy – 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…

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Episode 29 – Exploding stars, carbon stars, and starbursting pseudo little red dots
In this episode, Michelle and Nicole explore recent findings on Thamnos, carbon stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, Supernova Type Ia as cosmic probes, and an intriguing object identified as a ‘pseudo little red dot’.

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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