Solar system montage with eight planets

William Sheehan

Astronomy historian and retired psychiatrist

William Sheehan has been an amateur astronomer most of his life, and is a leading historian of astronomy, with twenty-books to his name, including Planets and Perception, Worlds in the Sky, The Planet Mars, and (with Dale P. Cruikshank) Discovering Pluto, all published by University of Arizona Press. A current member of the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group of Planetary System nomenclature, he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for astronomy writing and is a recipient of the Gold Medal of the Oriental Astronomical Association. The Main Belt Asteroid 16037 Sheehan was named in his honor.

Latest Planetary Radio Appearances

Discovering Mars with Jim Bell and William Sheehan

Discovering Mars is the new chronicle of humanity’s long relationship with the Red Planet, assembled by space historian William Sheehan and Mars explorer Jim Bell.