Joey Rodriguez
@astrojrod.bsky.social
Prof. at MSU, Astrophysics: Exoplanets & Young Stars, Golfer, Magic the Gathering, Sports: Commanders, Mets, Knicks, Devils
Pinned
Joey Rodriguez
@astrojrod.bsky.social
· Jul 1
a man in a suit is pointing at a blackboard that says proff
ALT: a man in a suit is pointing at a blackboard that says proff
media.tenor.com
Career Update: As of today, I was promoted to Associate Professor w/ Tenure at @michiganstateu.bsky.social. Just a surreal moment, incredibly grateful to my advisors, mentors, and team!
Incredible image from our student observers!
Happy Friday! We're still not over Wednesday night's spectacular view of the Northern Lights!
November 15, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Incredible image from our student observers!
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
We had such a fun time at the Halloween public night last Friday! Thanks to everyone who stopped by, we'll be open again for public nights in the spring.
October 28, 2025 at 2:53 AM
We had such a fun time at the Halloween public night last Friday! Thanks to everyone who stopped by, we'll be open again for public nights in the spring.
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
Join us tomorrow (Saturday) from 7:00-10:00pm for public night at the MSU Observatory! We have lots of fun moon and astronomy activities planned!
Visit our website for FAQs: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
Address: MSU Observatory, 4299 Pavilion Dr, Lansing, MI 48910
Visit our website for FAQs: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
Address: MSU Observatory, 4299 Pavilion Dr, Lansing, MI 48910
October 3, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Join us tomorrow (Saturday) from 7:00-10:00pm for public night at the MSU Observatory! We have lots of fun moon and astronomy activities planned!
Visit our website for FAQs: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
Address: MSU Observatory, 4299 Pavilion Dr, Lansing, MI 48910
Visit our website for FAQs: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
Address: MSU Observatory, 4299 Pavilion Dr, Lansing, MI 48910
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
If any of you fine folks are planetarians in (or want to be in) mid-Michigan, the Abrams Planetarium is hiring a full-time-staff position for the first time in 11 years!! Come work with the astro, scicomm, and informal ed folks at MSU!! 🔭 🧪 (reskeets welcome) careers.msu.edu/jobs/educati...
Educational Program Coordinator II - East Lansing, Michigan, United States
Position Summary
The program coordinator will maintain the planetarium, present live shows, and create new planetarium visualizations. In addition, this position will assist customers, assist in educa...
careers.msu.edu
September 29, 2025 at 4:21 PM
If any of you fine folks are planetarians in (or want to be in) mid-Michigan, the Abrams Planetarium is hiring a full-time-staff position for the first time in 11 years!! Come work with the astro, scicomm, and informal ed folks at MSU!! 🔭 🧪 (reskeets welcome) careers.msu.edu/jobs/educati...
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
Join us for these free astronomy events tomorrow, September 27th! 🌌
🌙 Night hike and night sky observing with Abrams Planetarium at Burchfield Park: www.lansing.org/event/burchf...
🌙 Public Observing at the MSU Observatory: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
🌙 Night hike and night sky observing with Abrams Planetarium at Burchfield Park: www.lansing.org/event/burchf...
🌙 Public Observing at the MSU Observatory: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
September 26, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Join us for these free astronomy events tomorrow, September 27th! 🌌
🌙 Night hike and night sky observing with Abrams Planetarium at Burchfield Park: www.lansing.org/event/burchf...
🌙 Public Observing at the MSU Observatory: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
🌙 Night hike and night sky observing with Abrams Planetarium at Burchfield Park: www.lansing.org/event/burchf...
🌙 Public Observing at the MSU Observatory: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
I'm hiring 1-2 postdocs this year! If you're interested in:
GW astrophysics
(Binary) Stellar Evolution
Stellar dynamics (esp. w/ massive BHs)
Galactic dynamics (inc. stellar streams)
plz consider applying! You don't need letters initially, just a list of references.
🔭🧪
aas.org/jobregister/...
GW astrophysics
(Binary) Stellar Evolution
Stellar dynamics (esp. w/ massive BHs)
Galactic dynamics (inc. stellar streams)
plz consider applying! You don't need letters initially, just a list of references.
🔭🧪
aas.org/jobregister/...
Postdoctoral Associate Positions in Theoretical/Computational Astrophysics | American Astronomical Society
The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill invites applications for postdoctoral associates to conduct research in theoretical and computational astrophysi...
aas.org
September 25, 2025 at 5:33 PM
I'm hiring 1-2 postdocs this year! If you're interested in:
GW astrophysics
(Binary) Stellar Evolution
Stellar dynamics (esp. w/ massive BHs)
Galactic dynamics (inc. stellar streams)
plz consider applying! You don't need letters initially, just a list of references.
🔭🧪
aas.org/jobregister/...
GW astrophysics
(Binary) Stellar Evolution
Stellar dynamics (esp. w/ massive BHs)
Galactic dynamics (inc. stellar streams)
plz consider applying! You don't need letters initially, just a list of references.
🔭🧪
aas.org/jobregister/...
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
~ 1000 astro bachelors degrees given out last year, a new record, while most grad programs are planning to admit fewer students this year (due to reduced or uncertain federal funding).
September 22, 2025 at 3:52 PM
~ 1000 astro bachelors degrees given out last year, a new record, while most grad programs are planning to admit fewer students this year (due to reduced or uncertain federal funding).
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
So proud of what we are accomplishing at @michiganstateu.bsky.social using our campus observatory. Scientific outreach and research from an incredible group of students.
Billions of years in the making, just in time for Friday night viewing. Swan Nebula (M17), Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), and Whirlpool Galaxy (M51a) captured with our 24-inch telescope.
September 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM
So proud of what we are accomplishing at @michiganstateu.bsky.social using our campus observatory. Scientific outreach and research from an incredible group of students.
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
Billions of years in the making, just in time for Friday night viewing. Swan Nebula (M17), Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), and Whirlpool Galaxy (M51a) captured with our 24-inch telescope.
September 5, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Billions of years in the making, just in time for Friday night viewing. Swan Nebula (M17), Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), and Whirlpool Galaxy (M51a) captured with our 24-inch telescope.
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
Proud supervisor moment: #LeidenObservatory graduate student Richelle van Capelleveen led one of two papers on our discovery of WISPIT 2b, a 5 Jupiter mass exoplanet clearing a path in a circumstellar disk. Laird Close and his team saw it in H-alpha, indicating gas accretion #astrodon 🔭 🧪
August 26, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Proud supervisor moment: #LeidenObservatory graduate student Richelle van Capelleveen led one of two papers on our discovery of WISPIT 2b, a 5 Jupiter mass exoplanet clearing a path in a circumstellar disk. Laird Close and his team saw it in H-alpha, indicating gas accretion #astrodon 🔭 🧪
Remember that AAS research notes were rejected from arxiv… arxiv.org/abs/2508.09167
The Loeb Scale: Astronomical Classification of Interstellar Objects
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to increase interstellar object (ISO) detections from a few over the past decade to potentially one per few months, demanding a systematic classification sche...
arxiv.org
August 14, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Remember that AAS research notes were rejected from arxiv… arxiv.org/abs/2508.09167
We were able to get the application portal closed for the astronomy graduate program at @michiganstateu.bsky.social for the upcoming cycle. Not an ideal circumstance, but we wanted to communicate this to the community as early as possible.
Sign of the times- Michigan State, one of the biggest astronomy programs in the USA, is not accepting ANY applications for its graduate program this year 😖
🔭🧪🎢
🔭🧪🎢
August 12, 2025 at 5:46 PM
We were able to get the application portal closed for the astronomy graduate program at @michiganstateu.bsky.social for the upcoming cycle. Not an ideal circumstance, but we wanted to communicate this to the community as early as possible.
Best unsolicited email/call was I heard of was the person who said they had visited LHS 1140 b and described it in detail.
This is why all unsolicited theories I receive go into an appropriately labeled e-mail folder and never return
Heisenberg on Bohr's occasionally excesssively generous nature. One of the first lessons learnt as a Nature editor about the "fringe" submissions is that this is exactly what will happen if you let it.
August 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Best unsolicited email/call was I heard of was the person who said they had visited LHS 1140 b and described it in detail.
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
Kepler mission: smaller stars have more short-period, small #exoplanets.
Theory: the smallest stars won’t have enough disk material to make small planets so there must be a turnover.
Kepler+K2: We have found a turnover!
Check out our newest Scaling K2 paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05734
🧵 1/9
🔭🧪☄️
Theory: the smallest stars won’t have enough disk material to make small planets so there must be a turnover.
Kepler+K2: We have found a turnover!
Check out our newest Scaling K2 paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05734
🧵 1/9
🔭🧪☄️
Scaling K2 VIII: Short-Period Sub-Neptune Occurrence Rates Peak Around Early-Type M Dwarfs
We uniformly combined data from the NASA Kepler and K2 missions to compute planet occurrence rates across the entire FGK and M dwarf stellar range. The K2 mission, driven by targets selected by guest ...
arxiv.org
August 11, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Kepler mission: smaller stars have more short-period, small #exoplanets.
Theory: the smallest stars won’t have enough disk material to make small planets so there must be a turnover.
Kepler+K2: We have found a turnover!
Check out our newest Scaling K2 paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05734
🧵 1/9
🔭🧪☄️
Theory: the smallest stars won’t have enough disk material to make small planets so there must be a turnover.
Kepler+K2: We have found a turnover!
Check out our newest Scaling K2 paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05734
🧵 1/9
🔭🧪☄️
Anyone in the Lansing area should stop by tonight and see the beautiful night sky!
Join us on Saturday from 9:00-11:00pm for public night at the MSU Observatory!
Visit our website for FAQs: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
Address: MSU Observatory, 4299 Pavilion Dr, Lansing, MI 48910
Visit our website for FAQs: web.pa.msu.edu/astro/observ...
Address: MSU Observatory, 4299 Pavilion Dr, Lansing, MI 48910
August 9, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Anyone in the Lansing area should stop by tonight and see the beautiful night sky!
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
I am community sourcing a list of people who are actively in search of MS/PhD students in planetary science/astrobiology/exoplanets for Fall 2026. If you are such a person, please fill out the following google form:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Planetary Science MS/PhD Positions for Fall 2026
Crowd sourced list of people who are looking for MS/PhD students to help connect prospective students with advisors so we can do even more fabulous planetary science! (Submitting a response indicates ...
docs.google.com
August 5, 2025 at 6:03 PM
I am community sourcing a list of people who are actively in search of MS/PhD students in planetary science/astrobiology/exoplanets for Fall 2026. If you are such a person, please fill out the following google form:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
Sign of the times- Michigan State, one of the biggest astronomy programs in the USA, is not accepting ANY applications for its graduate program this year 😖
🔭🧪🎢
🔭🧪🎢
July 30, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Sign of the times- Michigan State, one of the biggest astronomy programs in the USA, is not accepting ANY applications for its graduate program this year 😖
🔭🧪🎢
🔭🧪🎢
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
this is due to a combination of (a) having a wayyy bigger than expected incoming class and (b) the state of federal funding
as much as it sucks, it's important to be transparent about where we stand. hopefully other departments will follow
as much as it sucks, it's important to be transparent about where we stand. hopefully other departments will follow
Sign of the times- Michigan State, one of the biggest astronomy programs in the USA, is not accepting ANY applications for its graduate program this year 😖
🔭🧪🎢
🔭🧪🎢
July 30, 2025 at 7:35 PM
this is due to a combination of (a) having a wayyy bigger than expected incoming class and (b) the state of federal funding
as much as it sucks, it's important to be transparent about where we stand. hopefully other departments will follow
as much as it sucks, it's important to be transparent about where we stand. hopefully other departments will follow
With prospective graduate emails beginning, I want to point people to a thread about these emails: x.com/Astro_JRod/s... Unfortunately, @michiganstateu.bsky.social 's astronomy PhD program will not be accepting applications for the upcoming admissions cycle. astro.natsci.msu.edu/graduate/how...
How to apply - Astronomy
astro.natsci.msu.edu
July 30, 2025 at 3:17 PM
With prospective graduate emails beginning, I want to point people to a thread about these emails: x.com/Astro_JRod/s... Unfortunately, @michiganstateu.bsky.social 's astronomy PhD program will not be accepting applications for the upcoming admissions cycle. astro.natsci.msu.edu/graduate/how...
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
summer project presentations from Ryan and @adalyngibson.bsky.social at the @michiganstateu.bsky.social MidSURE conference today!
July 23, 2025 at 5:28 PM
summer project presentations from Ryan and @adalyngibson.bsky.social at the @michiganstateu.bsky.social MidSURE conference today!
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
UniSQ PhD student Emma Nabbie has a cool paper about a Kepler system showing more than 24 hr of TTVs! They show that the system can be explained by a mutually inclined (15deg) non transiting interior planet at 2:1 resonance! See paper! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A high mutual inclination system around KOI-134 revealed by transit timing variations - Nature Astronomy
Using Kepler, this study identifies a compact multiplanetary system that is not flat, where gravitational interactions cause its planets’ periods to change by nearly a day per cycle and their orbital ...
www.nature.com
July 4, 2025 at 7:01 AM
UniSQ PhD student Emma Nabbie has a cool paper about a Kepler system showing more than 24 hr of TTVs! They show that the system can be explained by a mutually inclined (15deg) non transiting interior planet at 2:1 resonance! See paper! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
Here's I3/ATLAS from the 0.8m at Mt Kent as of 1 hr ago. The clip is a 50-min sequence.
July 4, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Here's I3/ATLAS from the 0.8m at Mt Kent as of 1 hr ago. The clip is a 50-min sequence.
Reposted by Joey Rodriguez
Like many NASA projects and missions, the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute was asked to submit a closeout budget this week. Hopefully just a drill! But very difficult just the same. 💔
Regardless of what happens, I’m *so proud* of the service we have performed for the community over the years. ✨🪐💾🔭👩🏻🔬
Regardless of what happens, I’m *so proud* of the service we have performed for the community over the years. ✨🪐💾🔭👩🏻🔬
July 3, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Like many NASA projects and missions, the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute was asked to submit a closeout budget this week. Hopefully just a drill! But very difficult just the same. 💔
Regardless of what happens, I’m *so proud* of the service we have performed for the community over the years. ✨🪐💾🔭👩🏻🔬
Regardless of what happens, I’m *so proud* of the service we have performed for the community over the years. ✨🪐💾🔭👩🏻🔬