• About Me

    I am a planetary scientist with a passion for teachings others about the amazing worlds of our solar system and our broader place in the universe. During my time in research I worked on three NASA mission teams. I have published on a wide range of problems concerning how planets evolve through time and how their solid body and atmosphere are linked. Currently I am residential astronomy faculty at Scottsdale Community College. In this role I get to share my enthusiasm for the universe with students and our broader community.

Contact Information
  • Email: Carver (dot) Bierson (at) scottsdalecc (dot) edu
Asteroid 148342 CarverBierson

In 2024 a main-belt asteroid was named after me. This asteroid orbits about 3 times farther from the sun than the Earth. To see where this asteroid is you can use NASA's Small Body Database: https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=148342

Classes I Teach

AST 101: Survey of Astronomy

What is Astronomy? What even is is a solar system, galaxy, or black hole? Why do we explore?

This class is the broadest overview of astronomy. We skim the surface of many subjects, but do not go very deep anywhere. This class can be a great starting place for understanding the breadth astronomy and how it connects to the human experience.

Image credit:NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

AST 111: Introduction to Solar System Astronomy

What are other worlds like? Could we go skiing on Mars? Are other worlds habitable? What would happen if an asteroid hit the Earth?

In this class we look closely at Earths closest neighbors, the other worlds of our solar system. Each world is a unique destination with its own story. Through learning those stories we reflect on what that teaches us about the Earth.

NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

AST 112: Introduction to Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology

How do we know the big bang happened? How do black holes form? Where do stars come from? What is going on in those beautiful space telescope images?

This is the class of big questions at the biggest scale. We will explore the life cycles of stars and of the universe itself. We will breakdown the evidence for the big bang, showing how we know what we know. We will learn how the elements that make up our bodies were forged in the cores of stars and then were spread over the galaxy.

Research Interests
Image credit:NASA/JPL

Formation of the Galilean satellites

The four large moons of Jupiter have a variety of compositions from the rocky Io to the icy Ganymede and Callisto. I have propose a new mechanism that may have lead to this diversity. I also model what measurements can be made by upcoming missions to test different hypotheses.

Image credit:NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Pluto and the Kuiper Belt

New horizons and ground based telescopes are returning vast amouts of data on Pluto and its planetary neighbors. I work to combine all these sources to better understand the structre and history of Kuiper Belt objects.

Pioneer Venus UV image

Venus Atmospheric Chemistry

On Venus, sulfur has many forms including forming sulfuric acid clouds. How sulfur moves through the atmosphere and the timescales for change are not well understood. I use modeling to try to understand the newest observational data of how sulfur species vary in both space and time.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

Mars South Polar Cap

The south polar cap of Mars contains enough mass to double the atmospheric pressure. I explore how these deposits formed using a collection of tools including models, observational images, and spaceborne radar.

Image credit:NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Tidal Dissipation on Io

Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system. The energy souce for this volcanism seems to be tidal dissipation; however, the volcanoes are not where tidal dissipation models predict. My work looks to understand why this discrepancy exists and how future spacecraft observations might help solve this mystery.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Lunar Crater Gravity

NASA's GRAIL mission has measured the gravity field of the moon to such high resolution that craters down to 30 km can be studied in detail. I use statistical tests and forward modeling to better understand how impacts modify the lunar crust and what that tells us about the structure of the lunar crust.