✨Astronomer searching for and studying the faintest galaxies in the Universe ✨co-host of the @starxiv.bsky.social podcast ✨ Enthusiastic-but-mediocre runner 🏃🏻♀️ vegan 🌱 She/her
Needs a square on "newly discovered dwarf galaxy candidate that could be a star cluster or could be something else" 🔭😂
Chris LintottI see @xkcd.com got ahold of my to do list: xkcd.com/3278 (Adding to my status as 'Most Distracted Astronomer', I'm actually working on a surprising number of these) 🔭
The summer holidays are in full swing! It's the perfect time to catch up on the arxiv with the @starxiv.bsky.social podcast! Last week we released our 40th episode, so there's plenty to listen to 🔭☄️🧪
The StarXiv ✨ podcastEpisode 40 – globular clusters, extended disks, high redshift galaxies and aliens! In this episode, Michelle and Payel explore the search for extra-terrestrial life, mechanisms for light element variations in globular clusters, characteristics of a typical galaxy at z>10, and Andromeda's extended…
No! Jodrell Bank is such an important site for UK astronomy and has such history. I remember well my visits and experiments there as a Manchester undergraduate. These cuts are short-sighted and I hate them. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭☄️🧪
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understandsAstronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.www.bbc.co.ukIf Dyson spheres exist in the universe, we might be able to find them if they are nearby. In this episode I talk about a paper that follows up candidate Dyson spheres with JWST! No 👽 tech found yet. But maybe one day 🔭☄️🧪
The StarXiv ✨ podcastMichelle's first paper is hunting for Dyson spheres! The authors used JWST to follow up two M dwarf stars with an infrared signature at their position. The results? These two objects are not Dyson spheres. The hunt for alien life continues! 👽🔭☄️🧪https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.09460
Episode 40 has dropped! Check it out on our website or wherever you get your podcasts 🔭☄️🧪
The StarXiv ✨ podcastEpisode 40 – globular clusters, extended disks, high redshift galaxies and aliens! In this episode, Michelle and Payel explore the search for extra-terrestrial life, mechanisms for light element variations in globular clusters, characteristics of a typical galaxy at z>10, and Andromeda's extended…
A great opportunity to come work with Denis, Eugene and the Surrey Astro team! 🧪☄️🔭
Denis ErkalInterested in a 3 year postdoc working on stellar streams and dark matter? Come join our amazing Astro group in Surrey to work with me and Eugene Vasiliev. Details here and the deadline is July 30th. Let me know if you have any questions! jobs.surrey.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... 🧪🔭☄️
Phew! At the airport after a whirlwind at @eas-meeting.bsky.social! What a great bunch of sessions, talks and posters. I'm exhausted from all the knowledge 🤩🔭 #eas2026Lausanne
AAAAHHHHHH! 🥳🎉🎊 It begins! We're mapping the sky in a way we've never done before. Get excited everyone, LSST is finally here! 🔭☄️🧪
NSF–DOE Rubin ObservatoryThe moment we've all been waiting for is finally here… On June 29, 2026, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory officially began the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)! 🔭🧪☄️🌌 🔗: rubinobservatory.org/news/action-...
This morning I'm joining the @ec-euclid.bsky.social session at #EAS2026Lausanne. How do we deal with the 1 billion source detections in Euclid? David O'Ryan discusses this for anomaly detection using Cutana to stream rather than save cutouts! Available on datalabs 🔭☄️
A great opportunity to work with a great scientist and excellent human within our lovely Surrey astro group. Feel free to approach us with any questions and make sure to apply! 🔭🧪☄️
Denis ErkalInterested in working on stellar streams in the UK? I’ll be posting a 3 year postdoc position to work with me and Eugene Vasiliev on measuring dark matter subhalo properties with streams in a few days. Interviews will be in early August with a start date of October 1st. 🧪☄️
This reminds me of when Gemini AI confidently told me there were no astronomers of note named Michelle Collins in my town. Bastard.
Mel AndrewsWhen utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.
The @esa.int @arrakihs-mission.eu is going to take some truly tremendous images of distant galactic halos. It will find streams and satellites that will help us uncover how these galaxies assemble. And the Uni of Surrey will be there all the way, thanks to the hard work of @derkal.bsky.social 🔭☄️🧪
Denis ErkalHere’s our press release about Arrakihs! Lots of cool science will hopefully come out of it and I’m especially excited about what can be done with the long streams it will detect. 🔭☄️🧪 www.surrey.ac.uk/news/esa-off...
As promised by the title, photometry is all you need to distinguish between different types of supernova (at least, between 1a and 1bc types). Cool study! Learn more by tuning into our latest episode 🔭☄️🧪 rss.com/podcasts/sta...
StarXiv: a podcast discussing the latest astronomy papers | Podcast on RSS.comHello! 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 ...rss.comThe StarXiv ✨ podcastMichelle's second paper asked if we can classify supernova from photometry alone. This is not without problems, given imbalance of types of supernova in training sets, and shifting between different datasets. But, this teams mixing approach works really well! arxiv.org/abs/2605.28922 ☄️ 🔭
Arrakihs is a go! Congratulations to the whole team, I'm so happy and excited! And to my colleague @derkal.bsky.social who has put in a huge amount of effort to this awesome mission 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🔭☄️😊
Denis ErkalThe Arrakihs mission has been adopted as ESA's next F-class mission, with an expected launch in 2030! It will look at the low surface brightness outskirts of 80 Milky Way-like galaxies. www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
Individual galaxies are beautiful and they can tell us a lot! In a world where we increasingly talk about large samples of galaxies, it's nice to get a detailed look at just one. Download our latest episode to hear more 🔭☄️🧪 @starxiv.bsky.social
The StarXiv ✨ podcastNicole's second paper is a deep look at one ordinary spiral, W2246f, mapped edge to edge with MUSE. Its centre looks like it hosts an active nucleus using standard diagnostics, but better diagnostics show it's just old, quiet stars; a galaxy quenching from the inside out. arxiv.org/abs/2605.29014 ☄️🔭