Payel's final paper claims a remarkable agreement between theory and observations with regards to gravitational wave mission from stellar mass black hole binaries! 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/pdf/2508.20787

Michelle's final paper asks whether the faintest dwarf galaxies may be the first safe places to form habitable worlds. Can ultra-faint dwarfs form terrestrial planets early and develop life? We dive into it in this episode. 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2509.01669

Michelle's second paper reports on Cloud-9, a proposed 'star free' galaxy (or reionization limited HI cloud, RELHIC). They follow it up with very deep HST imaging, but still can't find any stars there. So is it star free? Listen to learn more! arxiv.org/abs/2508.20157

In Payel's second paper, the authors discover a new isolated dwarf elliptical, contradicting the predictions of the morphology-density relation. How did it get there? 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/pdf/2508.20459

Payel's first paper explores the impact of Ly-alpha photos on a potential mode of feedback-free star formation after the birth of the most massive stars and before their deaths as supernovae. 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/pdf/2509.02566

Michelle can't get enough of Little Red Dots! When will we know what they are? Listen to episode 20 for more! 🔭 ☄️

Michelle's first paper takes us back to her addiction to Little Red dots. This paper discusses the need for active galactic nuclei at the heart of these puzzling objects. Tune in for more! 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2509.07100

Episode 20 is live! Join Payel and Michelle as they discuss blackholes, ancient galaxies, starless galaxies, star formation and whether life may flourish in the faintest galaxies. Join us on our website, Spotify , Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts 🔭 ☄️

Episode 20 – Dark galaxies, black holes, star formation and life in the faintest galaxies? In this episode of StarXiv, Michelle and Payel discuss black holes, feedback-free star formation, dark galaxies, runaway dwarf galaxies, and exploring the potential for life in the faintest galaxies.…

Michelle's final paper investigates interstellar objects (such as the 3 detected interstellar comets) for signs of alien technosignatures! So far, all 3 objects are comets, but if there were a probe out there, how could we find out? This paper outlines the methods. 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2508.16825

Payel's last paper confirms JWST/NIRSPEC findings of overmassive black holes at high redshift using an independent method relying on photometric variability. Find out more at arxiv.org/abs/2508.15905 🔭 ☄️

Michelle's second paper focuses on the direct detection of a gas giant forming in a multi-ringed protoplanetary disk from the WISPIT survey. This can help us learn about where planets are forming. 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2508.19053

Payel's second paper reveals the potential for high-resolution spectra of M-dwarfs, which make up 75% of all stars in the Milky Way, to reveal finer details of our Galaxy's chemical evolution history. Find out more at arxiv.org/abs/2508.18424 🔭 ☄️

In Payel's first paper, the authors increase the number of local high N/O emitters almost five-fold using the first data release from DESI! Find out more at arxiv.org/abs/2508.11998 🔭 ☄️

Michelle's first paper discussed the birth sites of stars. Do they form mostly in embedded clusters, or are they forming unbound across a range of environments? Seems like clustered based on this great paper! arxiv.org/abs/2508.12788 🔭 ☄️

Can you believe that we've been running this show for nearly a year? Listen to our latest episode, out today! Michelle & Payel cover stellar chemistry, nitrogen rich galaxies, the birth site of Milky Way stars, planets and alien technosignatures. 🔭 ☄️ starxiv.com/2025/09/01/e...

Episode 19 – Peering into the Local Universe, distant blackholes, forming planets and alien signatures In this episode, Michelle and Payel explore the chemistry of nearby M-dwarf stars and the formation of giant planets at significant distances from their hosts. They discuss supermassive black…

Michelle's final paper looked at the (mis)alignment between stars and their planetary systems. The work combines ALMA, TESS and K2 data to study the alignment of stars and their protoplanetary disks, with the goal of finding out if misalignments could be primordial. 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2508.06488

The link from the website was temporarily down, but it is now restored! For those of you that prefer the website to other apps 🔭🧪☄️

Nicole talked about this letter’s new way to classify globular clusters - not by orbits, but by chemistry. Above [Fe/H] ≈ –1.5, [Al/Fe] splits in-situ from accreted GCs. Primordial stars in accreted GCs are Al- and Mg-poor - signs of slower enrichment. arxiv.org/abs/2508.00526 🔭☄️

Michelle discussed new observations of the giant low surface brightness galaxy, Malin 2, which a team observed with the recently commissioned Teide Twin Telescope. They find new features at the edges of its large disk, and use these to understand why it looks so weird 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2508.07930

Nicole’s first paper looked at the FIREbox sim to see if disks survive in dwarfs! They mostly vanish below M★ ≈ 10⁹ M☉, with a transition at 10⁹–10¹⁰ M☉. Feedback turbulence destroys disks - but a well-aligned merger (see m11b) can still spin one up! arxiv.org/abs/2508.00991 🔭

Michelle began with a dive into Renzo's rule, which states that wherever you see a wiggle in the distribution of baryos in a galaxies, you also see a wiggle in their rotation curves. It's seen as a problem for dark matter, but easy for MOND. But what does this paper say? arxiv.org/abs/2508.03569

Episode 18 has just dropped! We have Nicole standing in for Payel (who is on her hols), and she and Michelle have focused on disks, disks and more disks! Tune in to learn more about stellar and planetary disks and their various, mysterious ways. 🔭 ☄️ starxiv.com/2025/08/18/e...

Episode 18 – disks, disks and more disks! In this episode, Michelle and Nicole dissect 5 papers, and accidentally find a common theme: disks! Whether in low mass galaxies, giant low surface brightness galaxies, the rotation curves of spirals or the natal environment of planetary systems, disks…

Can super massive stars with compact massive accretion disks form massive black hole seeds AND explain the observations of Little Red Dots? This paper claims they can! Michelle talks us through the details. 🔭☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2507.22014

In Payel's last paper, new simulations are run to trace the dynamic evolution of stellar clumps like in the Sparkler galaxy at z=1.4 using JWST, to see if their detected masses and dimensions can be reconciled with the considerably smaller values observed in Milky Way GCs.🔭☄️ arxiv.org/pdf/2507.13904

Michelle also delved into this paper that tries to understand whether an unusual quasar at redshift 7 has enough galaxies nearby to allow it to get back on the black hole stellar mass relation by redshift zero. 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2507.13489

Payel then discusses a paper looking at how hierarchical mergers of stellar-mass black holes in nuclear star clusters or AGN disks can create a binary black hole system with individual masses falling within the range of the pair-instability supernovae black hole mass gap. 🔭☄️ arxiv.org/pdf/2507.17551

What creates a puffy, hot, and very fast moving white dwarf? Payel discusses a paper exploring whether these stars might be carbon-core burning white dwarfs in double-degenerate binaries, flung out by their exploding partner. 🔭☄️ arxiv.org/pdf/2507.15952

Did we finally detect a starless dark matter subhalo? Michelle leads us through a paper that claims to find one near the Sun using pulsar accelerations 😍 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2507.16932

Episode 17 has dropped! Tune in to hear Payel & Michelle talk about about a dark matter subhalo detection, the problem(s) with super massive black holes, massive star clusters in the Sparkler, speedy white dwarfs and more! 🔭☄️ starxiv.com/2025/08/04/e...

Episode 17 – detecting dark matter, unusual black holes and speedy stars In this episode, Michelle and Payel explore the detection of a starless dark matter subhalo, the characteristics of fast, puffy white dwarfs, and the formation and merging processes of black holes. They also discuss star…

Two more days until we record our next podcast! Summer seems to be a very productive time for finishing papers - well done astronomers! You can tune into our last episode at starxiv.com/2025/07/21/e..., or on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts. 🔭☄️🧪

Michelle also discussed the detection of the ultra-short period planet TOI-2341b, which has an orbital period of only 5.4 hours! This object is so close to its star that its surface is likely molten 🌋 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2507.08464

Gah! Just a little too late to make it into my 3I/ATLAS @starxiv.bsky.social round up! The episode just went live but this would have been a great addition🤩☄️🔭

In Payel's last paper, the authors employed symbolic regression with simulations to model the probability distribution function of distances to dark haloes from two bright neighbouring galaxies. This could guide future observational efforts. 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/pdf/2507.01814

Payel's second paper looked at local highly star-forming galaxies to gather more clues about the high N/O, low-metallicity galaxies found at high redshift by JWST. Outflows might play a role! 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/pdf/2507.11658

Michelle took on the mammoth task of summarising 4 papers on our newest interstellar visitor, the 3I/ATLAS comet! She discussed its orbit (highly eccentric and fast moving), colour (pretty red), coma and activitiy (yes and undetected as yet) and origin (a thick disk star?). 🔭 ☄️

If in doubt, it's feedback! Payel discussed a paper that patched models for tiny UFDs to large-scale MW models, revealing that the metallicity of the intergalactic medium doesn't influence UFD metallicities. However, mass-loading factors were deemed important. 🔭☄️ arxiv.org/pdf/2507.03182

Our latest episode is live! Listen to Michelle and Payel discuss interstellar comets, molten worlds, nitrogen rich galaxies, ultra-faint and dark galaxies! This episode, they packed in 8 papers! It's quite a ride. 🔭☄️ starxiv.com/2025/07/21/e...

Episode 16 – interstellar visitors, molten planets and faint, dark galaxies In 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…

Michelle's last paper was a quick research note on how and why photometric redshifts can fail dramatically. This paper focused on the COSBO-7galaxy, and the authors show why different teams got different results, and how to fix this going forward. arxiv.org/abs/2507.01251 🔭 ☄️

In Payel's last paper, she talks about how to look for things you didn't know existed using graphs. The authors discover birth radius as a latent variable important for observations relation to radial migration. arxiv.org/abs/2507.00134 🔭 ☄️

Payel also discovered that binaries could explain the existence of the ultra-long period pulsars that Michelle discussed a few podcasts ago. Hurray for binaries! arxiv.org/abs/2507.00946 🔭 ☄️

Michelle couldn't help but talk about the globualr cluster (GC) system of the Universe's greatest galaxy: Andromeda. The authors study the outer GCs of M31 and show that those which align with streams have redder horizontal branches. A cool way to identify accreted GCs arxiv.org/abs/2506.21267 🔭 ☄️

Payel discovered in this paper that planets can induce flares on the stars they orbit! As long as they're close enough in. Find out more about the first ever planet-induced flare at: arxiv.org/abs/2507.00791 🔭 ☄️

How will we find Population III galaxies? Michelle dived into a paper that simulated the spectra we expect to see from these fossil galaxies. They show how the emission features vary with time, and even find a handful of new candidates! arxiv.org/abs/2506.17400 🔭 ☄️

Happy Monday! Start the week with episode 15 of the StarXiv! Listen to Michelle and Payel discuss long period radio pulsars, planetary induced flares, globular clusters in Andromeda, lGalactic archaeology, avoiding redshift catastrophe and pop III galaxies starxiv.com/2025/07/07/e... 🔭 ☄️

Episode 15 – Flare-inducing planets, avoiding catastrophe, and accreted star clusters In this episode, Michelle and Payel delve into topics including long period pulsars, population III galaxies, and Galactic archaeology. They discuss noteworthy research on metal-free galaxies, stellar flares…