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Joey Rodriguez

@astrojrod.bsky.social

90 followers 86 following 38 posts

Prof. at MSU, Astrophysics: Exoplanets & Young Stars, Golfer, Magic the Gathering, Sports: Commanders, Mets, Knicks, Devils

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Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Jul 1

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!

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

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Michigan State University Observatory @msu-observatory.bsky.social · 5d

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

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Abbabadook 🎃 @abbiestev.bsky.social · 9d

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

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Michigan State University Observatory @msu-observatory.bsky.social · 12d

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...

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Carl Rodriguez @carlrodriguez.bsky.social · 13d

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/...

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

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Jay Strader @caprastro.bsky.social · 16d

~ 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).

number of astro bachelor degrees over time, showing rapid recent increase

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

💀Adina Feinstein PhD 💀 @afeinstein20.bsky.social · 20d

rotation periods! variables! machine learning!

arxiv.org/abs/2509.14423

200,000+ Deep Learning Inferred Periods of Stellar Variability from The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae

Stars exhibit a range of variability periods that depend on their mass, age, and evolutionary stage. For space-based photometric data, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have demonstrated success in...

arxiv.org

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Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Sep 5

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.

Michigan State University Observatory @msu-observatory.bsky.social · Sep 5

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

Michigan State University Observatory @msu-observatory.bsky.social · Sep 5

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.

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Matthew Kenworthy @mattkenworthy.bsky.social · Aug 26

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 🔭 🧪

A series of concentric black and white ovals against a black background, with a dim red dot in the lower left of one of the paths of a black ring. The ovals are dust rings around a young star, and the red dot is a 5 Jupiter mass exoplanet called WISPIT 2b.

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Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Aug 14

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

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Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Aug 12

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.

Yvette Cendes @whereisyvette.bsky.social · Jul 30

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 😖

🔭🧪🎢

Text detailing how MSU isn’t accepting grad applications for astronomy on their website

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Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Aug 11

4.5 years and running at MSU is my record. I moved a lot in grad school.

Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Aug 11

Best unsolicited email/call was I heard of was the person who said they had visited LHS 1140 b and described it in detail.

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Aug 11

This is why all unsolicited theories I receive go into an appropriately labeled e-mail folder and never return

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · Aug 11

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.

Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Kevin Hardegree-Ullman @kevinkhu.bsky.social · Aug 11

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

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🔭🧪☄️

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

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Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Aug 9

Anyone in the Lansing area should stop by tonight and see the beautiful night sky!

Michigan State University Observatory @msu-observatory.bsky.social · Aug 9

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

Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Sarah Hörst @planetdr.bsky.social · Aug 5

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...

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

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Yvette Cendes @whereisyvette.bsky.social · Jul 30

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 😖

🔭🧪🎢

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

💀Adina Feinstein PhD 💀 @afeinstein20.bsky.social · Jul 30

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

Yvette Cendes @whereisyvette.bsky.social · Jul 30

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 😖

🔭🧪🎢

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Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Jul 30

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

Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

💀Adina Feinstein PhD 💀 @afeinstein20.bsky.social · Jul 23

summer project presentations from Ryan and @adalyngibson.bsky.social at the @michiganstateu.bsky.social MidSURE conference today!

Undergraduate student talking to three people at their research poster

Undergraduate student talking to someone at their research poster

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Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Jul 14

190-250 Msun!

Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jul 4

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

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jul 4

Here's I3/ATLAS from the 0.8m at Mt Kent as of 1 hr ago. The clip is a 50-min sequence.

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Reposted by Joey Rodriguez

Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · Jul 3

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. ✨🪐💾🔭👩🏻‍🔬

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Joey Rodriguez @astrojrod.bsky.social · Jul 1

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!

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

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