Shows
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 16 - interstellar visitors, molten planets and faint, dark galaxiesIn this episode, Michelle and Payel squash in more papers than ever, as Michelle delves into a flurry of papers about new newly discovered interstellar comet: 3I/ATLAS. They also discuss what sets the metallicities of the faintest galaxies, how nitrogen enrichment relates to gas density, the molten properties of a new ultra-short period planets, and how to find 'dak' galaxies! Find the papers we discuss in this episode below!What Sets the Metallicity of Ultra-Faint Dwarfs? - Vance Wheeler et alCLASSY XIV: Nitrogen Enrichment Shaped by Gas Density and Feedback...2025-07-2135 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 15 – Flare-inducing planets, avoiding catastrophe, and accreted star clustersThis episode, Michelle is back and she and Payel discuss long period pulsars, population III galaxies, latent variables in Galactic archaeology, accreted globular clusters, planets that cause their star to flare and avoiding photo0z catastrophes. Check out the papers we discussed this episode below!Metal-polluted PopIII galaxies and How to Find Them – Elka Rusta et al.Close-in planet induces flares on its host star – Ekaterina Ilin et al.Accreted Globular Clusters and Horizontal Branch Morphology in the Outer Halo of M31 – Gracie McGill et al.A binary origin of ult...2025-07-0739 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 14 - A cosmic owl, misaligned planetary systems, and the Milky Way as an outlierIn 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 produced through hydrostatic channels to those produced through explosive ones, twin collisional-ring galaxies, and the impact of the initial mass function on chemical evolution at high redshift.Read this episode's pa...2025-06-2339 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 13 - Missing Europium, Pluto's craters, 43,000 Goblins and some Pop III starsIn 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 links below!Collisionless relaxation to quasi-steady state attractors in cold dark matter halos: origin of the universal NFW profile - Uddipan Banik, Amitava BhattacharjeePluto Geologic Map: Use of...2025-06-0934 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 12 - Signs of life, little red dots and the links between star clusters and high redshift galaxiesThis 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 you get your podcasts!Check out this episode's papers on the arXiv below!Super-Eddington accretion in high-redshift quasar hosts: black-hole driven outflows, galaxy quenching, and the nature of Little Red...2025-05-2539 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 11 - Whirling planes, wandering black holes and alien supernovaeIn 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 Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.You can check out all the papers we discuss this episode using the links below!Wandering intermediate-mass black holes in Milky...2025-05-1239 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 10 - Mixing dark matter, surviving black holes and hunting for planetsThis 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!Constraining Mixed Dark Matter models with high redshift Lyman-alpha forest data - Olga Garcia-Gallego et al.Black Hole Survival Guide: Searching for Stars in the Galactic Center...2025-04-2836 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 9 – Slowing bars, growing black holes, pasta sauces and AIIn 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– Óscar Jiménez-Arranz & Santi Roca-FabregaEvidence for evolutionary pathway-dependent black hole scaling relations – Jonathan Cohn et al.pastamarkers 2: pasta sauce colormaps for your flavorful results – The PASTA collaborat...2025-04-1434 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 8 – Cosmology, pulsars and dark matter in disk galaxiesIn 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 in the First Billion Years – Fred Angelo Batan GarciaDark matter spiral arms in Milky Way-like halos – Marcel Benet et al.Data Release 1 of the Da...2025-03-3137 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 7 - Black holes, stealthy satellites and the distance to DF2In 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 undergraduates reclaimed their recording equipment!This episode's papers:A new way to measure the distance to NGC1052-DF2 – Michael Beasley et al.Revisiting the globular clusters of NGC1052-DF2 – Katja Fahrion et al...2025-03-1030 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 6 - Einstein rings, black holes, and ringed galaxiesIn 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 & OttSpinning spectral sirens: Robust cosmological measurement using mass-spin correlations in the binary black hole population – Hui et alEuclid: A complete Einstein ring in NGC 6505 – C. M. O’Riordan et al.The Pristine survey: XXVIII. The extremely metal-poor stream C-19 stretches over more than 100 degrees – Zhen Yuan et alUn...2025-02-2432 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 5 - Galaxies, gas accretion, and aliensArriving 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 – Thuruthipilly et al.Gas accretion at high redshift: cold flows all the way – Waterval et al.Pearls on a string: Dark and bright galaxies on a strikingly straight and narrow filament – Arabsalmani et al.2025-02-1032 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 4 - JanuaryIn 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 in the Milky Way: a deep learning approach – Pöder et al2025-01-2828 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 3 - DecemberIn 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 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’...2024-12-2046 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 2 - OctoberThis 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 black hole in M31 – Kishalay De et al.New Moons of Uranus and Neptune from Ultra-Deep Pencil Beam Surveys – Scott Sheppard et al.Molecular Hydrogen in the Extremely Metal-Poor, Star-Fo...2024-11-1835 min
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papersEpisode 1 - SeptemberIn 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/Structures around Gaia-2MASS-selected stars? BlainLoki: an ancient system hidden in the Galactic plane? Sesito et al.Revealing Potential Initial Mass Function variations with metallicity: JWST observations of...2024-11-0127 min