Michelle and Payel

StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papers

Science EN ↓ 39 episodes

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.

Author

Michelle and Payel

Category

Science

Podcast website

rss.com

Latest episode

Jun 23, 2026

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Episodes

Episode 14 - A cosmic owl, misaligned planetary systems, and the Milky Way as an outlier 23.06.2025

In this episode, we had Payel and Nicole filling in for Michelle who’s away on holiday. Nicole is a PhD student, also at the University of Surrey Astrophysics research group. They discuss the direct detection of HI beyond the local universe, how the Milky Way seems unusually cold, a planetary system with two misaligned planets, detecting stars of common origin through the ratio of alpha elements p...

Episode 13 - Missing Europium, Pluto's craters, 43,000 Goblins and some Pop III stars 09.06.2025

In this episode, Michelle and Payel discuss why dark matter halos have a Universal density profile, how to age-date Pluto's surface with craters, delayed Pop III star formation, dwarf candidates in the UNIONS survey, a problem with Europium and whether Little Red Dots are really AGN. Listen below, on Spotify , Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts! Read this episodes papers through the...

Episode 12 - Signs of life, little red dots and the links between star clusters and high redshift galaxies 25.05.2025

This episode, Michelle and Payel are very on-theme as they discuss whether Little Red Dots can be explained by super Eddington accretion; the high abundances of nitrogen to oxygen in the most distant galaxies and whether this is tied to globular cluster formation; the stellar graveyard in galaxies, and claims of signs of life in distant world. Listen below, on Spotify , Apple podcasts or wherever...

Episode 11 - Whirling planes, wandering black holes and alien supernovae 12.05.2025

In this episode, Michelle and Payel discuss whether wandering intermediate black holes are mythical or not, how planes of satellites may form from cosmic accretion, how to form double hot Jupiters, whether Kelper's supernova remnant is an 'alien', whether Unions I is the faintest star cluster or the faintest galaxy, and just how old our globular clusters are. Listen below or check us out on Spotif...

Episode 10 - Mixing dark matter, surviving black holes and hunting for planets 28.04.2025

This episode, Michelle and Payel delve into the latest constraints on mixed dark matter from the Lyman alpha forest, what happens to stars that get a little too close to a black hole, how machine learning can help identify stars likely to host an Earth-like planet, studying the dark ages from the Moon and witnessing the birth of nuclear star clusters! Check out the episode and papers below! Constr...

Episode 9 – Slowing bars, growing black holes, pasta sauces and AI 14.04.2025

In this episode, Payel and Michelle discuss how you can slow down a galaxy’s bar, scaling relations for black holes, whether we can use intracluster light to learn about dark matter, little red dots, AI cosmologists and pasta sauce for all your plotting needs! Check out our episode – and the papers that inspired it – below. Tidal interaction can stop galactic bars: on the LMC non-rotating bar – Ós...

Episode 8 – Cosmology, pulsars and dark matter in disk galaxies 31.03.2025

In this episode, Payel and Michelle discuss the longest period pulsar, the formation of nuclear star clusters, the recent data releases from ACT and DESI, dark spiral arms and the problem with rotation curves. Papers in this episode: The discovery of a 41-second radio pulsar PSR J0311+1402 with ASKAP – Yuanming Wang et al. Seeding Cores: A Pathway for Nuclear Star Clusters from Bound Star Clusters...

Episode 7 - Black holes, stealthy satellites and the distance to DF2 10.03.2025

In this episode of The Starxiv, Michelle and Payel discuss a revised distance for the controversial ultra-diffuse galaxy, DF2; a discovery of a supermassive black hole in an ultra compact dwarf; 2 galaxies hiding in plain sight; and how statistical mechanics may help with dark matter's cusp-core problem. Michelle and Payel also have to put up with slightly inferior audio quality as the undergradua...

Episode 6 - Einstein rings, black holes, and ringed galaxies 24.02.2025

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 correlations in t...

Episode 5 - Galaxies, gas accretion, and aliens 10.02.2025

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! Papers discussed this month: DES to HSC: Detecting low surface brightness galaxies in the Abell 194 cluster using transfer learning  – Thur...

Episode 4 - January 28.01.2025

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 galaxies in cosmic voids  Bidaran et al. On the detection of stellar wakes...

Episode 3 - December 20.12.2024

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. Papers discussed this month: The multiple classes of ultra-diffuse galaxies: Can...

Episode 2 - October 18.11.2024

This month, Payel and Michelle sit down to discuss a range of exciting new results, including a disappearing star, news moons of Uranus, star formation in extremely metal poor galaxies and unusual young stars in the Milky Way disk. Plus, we make a plug for the extremely useful  local_volume_database project . Papers discussed this month: The disappearance of a massive star marking the birth of a b...

Episode 1 - September 01.11.2024

In our first podcast, we sit down to discuss a few papers from September, including a trio of new galaxies, the initial mass function, the building blocks of the Milky Way and are we alone in the Universe? Papers in this month’s episode: Three Quenched, Faint Dwarf Galaxies in the Direction of NGC 300: New Probes of Reionization and Internal Feedback , Sand et al  Did WISE detect Dyson Spheres/Str...

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