TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papers

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35 episodes
2024 to 2026
Median: 34 minutes
Collection: Physics, Math, and Astronomy

Description (podcaster-provided):

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

This podcast is a biweekly discussion of recent astronomy and astrophysics research papers posted to arXiv, hosted by University of Surrey astronomers. Across the episodes, the hosts survey a wide range of current results, often connecting new observations to broader questions about how galaxies, stars, planets, and cosmic structure form and evolve.

A recurring theme is “galactic archaeology,” especially efforts to reconstruct the Milky Way’s assembly history using stellar ages, chemical abundances, stellar streams, globular clusters, and merger debris, alongside comparisons to cosmological simulations. Related conversations frequently branch into the demographics and evolution of dwarf galaxies, ultra-diffuse galaxies, and satellite systems, including how environment, feedback, and chemical enrichment shape the faintest systems.

The show also regularly covers high-redshift galaxy discoveries and puzzles highlighted by facilities such as JWST and ALMA, including discussions of unusually compact or red sources, early disks and starbursts, and the growth of black holes in the early Universe. Black holes and compact objects appear throughout in many contexts: intermediate-mass black hole searches, black hole seed formation, gravitational-wave population results, tidal disruption events, pulsars, and supernovae used for cosmology.

Cosmology and dark matter topics include the cosmic web, lensing and Einstein rings, matter clustering constraints, rotation-curve challenges, and tests of alternative dark matter scenarios. On smaller scales, the podcast explores exoplanets and planetary system formation (including around low-mass stars), stellar variability and flares, near-Earth objects and interstellar visitors, Solar activity forecasting, and occasional astrobiology and technosignature searches. Methodologically, many episodes highlight modern analysis approaches such as machine learning applied to imaging, spectroscopy, and survey discovery.

Episodes:

Episode 35 - More Milky Way mayhem, Fast Radio Bursts, and very cold disks 2026-Apr-28 34 minutes

Episode 34 - The cosmic web, the ancient Milky Way, and planets around small stars 2026-Apr-13 28 minutes

Episode 33 - Bananas, blueberries, planet eating stars and the fate of the Milky Way 2026-Mar-30 32 minutes

Episode 32 - Ancient star clusters and growing black holes 2026-Mar-16 31 minutes

Episode 31 - Near Earth Objects, Little Red Dots, bursty star formation and life around massive stars 2026-Mar-02 32 minutes

Episode 30 - Direct collapse black holes, nuclear stellar discs, and machine learning merger histories 2026-Feb-16 27 minutes

Episode 29 - Exploding stars, carbon stars, and starbursting pseudo little red dots 2026-Jan-26 32 minutes

Episode 28 - Fading stars, digesting planets and dark matter conundrums 2026-Jan-12 33 minutes

Episode 27: Making a Milky Way, searching for dwarfs, and elusive black holes 2025-Dec-22 32 minutes

Episode 26: A tail of tales, little galaxies, and starspots 2025-Dec-08 31 minutes

Episode 25: Extragalactic exoplanets, simulating individual stars, and galaxy mergers as cosmic ray factories 2025-Nov-24 42 minutes

Episode 24 - Strong lenses, Solar Flares and young, high alpha stars 2025-Nov-12 36 minutes

Episode 23 - Failed galaxies, faint galaxies, and the proto-Galaxy 2025-Oct-27 41 minutes

Episode 22 - ORCs, rings, and Galactic histories 2025-Oct-13 37 minutes

Episode 21 - Mercury, chemistry and quasi periodic eruptions 2025-Sep-29 37 minutes

Episode 20 - Dark galaxies, black holes, star formation and life in the faintest galaxies? 2025-Sep-15 33 minutes

Episode 19 - Peering into the Local Universe, distant black holes, forming planets and alien signatures 2025-Sep-01 36 minutes

Episode 18 - disks, disks and more disks! 2025-Aug-18 38 minutes

Episode 17 - detecting dark matter, unusual black holes and speedy stars 2025-Aug-04 38 minutes

Episode 16 - interstellar visitors, molten planets and faint, dark galaxies 2025-Jul-21 35 minutes

Episode 15 – Flare-inducing planets, avoiding catastrophe, and accreted star clusters 2025-Jul-07 39 minutes

Episode 14 - A cosmic owl, misaligned planetary systems, and the Milky Way as an outlier 2025-Jun-23 39 minutes

Episode 13 - Missing Europium, Pluto's craters, 43,000 Goblins and some Pop III stars 2025-Jun-09 34 minutes

Episode 12 - Signs of life, little red dots and the links between star clusters and high redshift galaxies 2025-May-25 39 minutes

Episode 11 - Whirling planes, wandering black holes and alien supernovae 2025-May-12 39 minutes

Episode 10 - Mixing dark matter, surviving black holes and hunting for planets 2025-Apr-28 36 minutes

Episode 9 – Slowing bars, growing black holes, pasta sauces and AI 2025-Apr-14 34 minutes

Episode 8 – Cosmology, pulsars and dark matter in disk galaxies 2025-Mar-31 37 minutes

Episode 7 - Black holes, stealthy satellites and the distance to DF2 2025-Mar-10 30 minutes

Episode 6 - Einstein rings, black holes, and ringed galaxies 2025-Feb-24 32 minutes

Episode 5 - Galaxies, gas accretion, and aliens 2025-Feb-10 32 minutes

Episode 4 - January 2025-Jan-28 28 minutes

Episode 3 - December 2024-Dec-20 46 minutes

Episode 2 - October 2024-Nov-18 35 minutes

Episode 1 - September 2024-Nov-01 27 minutes