StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papers

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, or on Spotify and Apple.Check out this weeks papers belowStellar ages from [C/N] in giant stars: applicability and limitations - Giada Casali et alThe Galactic Phosphorus Survey. I. Chemical Evolution across the Galactic Disk from ∼750 FGK Stars -Dionysios GakisAsteroids Impacting the Solar System Planets and the Moon. I. Collision Rates from N-body Simulations -Qifeng Cheng, Daniel ScolnicA Spectral Framework for Testing the Quasi-Star Hypothesis in Little Red Dots I: Weighing LRDs by Their Super-Eddington Luminosity Ratios---No Signs of Overmassive Black Holes - Olivia Curtis et al.

In this week's episode, Michelle and Payel ask whether early dark energy leaves a detectable imprint on large-scale structure, and whether Venus once had a moon — and what might have happened to it. They also each pick a paper using forbidden line emission to probe galaxy evolution, including one testing whether some extremely metal-poor galaxies are impostors.

Michelle and Nicole sit down to discuss the latest papers from the arXiv, including the discovery of a globular cluster stream outside the Milky Way, how disk clumps migrate to the centres of galaxies, a unique and cool pulsar hierarchical triple system and a weird, metal poor star in the Milky Way disk. Tune in below, on Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.Check out this weeks papers belowEvidence for the First Globular Cluster Stellar Stream beyond the Milky Way - Julie Kiel Holm et alClump Migration in Disk Galaxies: Revisiting Chandrasekhar's Dynamical Friction - Pushpak Pandey & Kanak SahaTracing the early Milky Way thin disc with the Gaia-ESO Survey - Carlos Viscasillas Vázquez et al.The PSR J0435+3233 Triple System - Z. L. Yang et al

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 Rubin. You can read more about the papers below:Cosmic CORALS: Timing the Universe with high-z star clusters - Elena Tomasetti et al.AI's Capability in Assisting Scientific Research in Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology I: Literature Review - Anamaria Hell et al.Evidence for a giant companion orbiting Tabby's star - Cristina Madurga-Favieres et al.Bar-driven secular evolution largely complete in a disk galaxy 7.6 billion years ago - Takafumi Tsukui et al.A Deep Look at the Ultra-Faint Milky Way Satellite Virgo III with Rubin Observatory Data Preview 2 - Aashay Pai et al.

In this episode, Michelle and Payel discuss results from the searches for extra-terrestrial life, a natural mechanism for producing light element variations in globular clusters, a typical galaxy at z>10 and the origin of Andromeda's extended stellar disk.And take a look at the papers belowGlobular cluster abundance patterns inherited from giant molecular clouds - William McClymont et al.Project Hephaistos -- IV. James Webb Space Telescope Observations of Two Dyson Sphere Candidates - Erik Zackrisson et al.Deep Spectroscopic Follow-Up of Maisie's Galaxy -- A Typical Galaxy in the Early Universe - Rebecca Larson et alThe Merger-Driven Origin of the Vast Extended Stellar Disc Around the Andromeda Galaxy - Tsakonas et al