Author Profile: Benningfield D

Damond Benningfield

Biography

Damond Benningfield is a freelance science writer and audio producer in Austin, Texas. Among other projects, he writes and produces StarDate, a daily radio program about astronomy and space exploration, and Science and the Sea, a weekly program about marine science. He has been involved with several other short-format radio programs. Benningfield, a native of Austin, also serves as executive editor of StarDate magazine. He has contributed to almost 50 magazines, newspapers, and websites, including Air & Space/Smithsonian, Smithsonian, and Astronomy. He has a bachelor of journalism degree from The University of Texas at Austin.

Publications from D. Benningfield

Atmospheric Sciences

A burst of sunlight above a cloudy Earth.

News 16 September 2021

Small Climate Changes Could Be Magnified by Natural Processes

A new study uses modeling techniques to uncover how small incidents of warming may be turned into hyperthermal events lasting thousands of years.

Planetary Sciences

A diver approaches rocks covered with multicolored mats of bacteria.

News 3 September 2021

Longer Days Likely Boosted Earth’s Early Oxygen

Microbial mats in a Lake Huron sinkhole, combined with modeling work, suggest that the changing length of Earth’s day could have played a key role in oxygenating the atmosphere.

Planetary Sciences

This illustration shows an exoplanet orbiting its much brighter star.

GeoFIZZ 26 July 2021

Oddballs of the Exoplanet Realm

The list of planets in other star systems includes zombies, hot giants, puffballs, and even a few Tatooines. Zowie!

Planetary Sciences

Illustration of a small, mottled, cold exoplanet, with its host star in the background.

Feature 26 July 2021

Exoplanets in the Shadows

The bright clutter of individual discoveries can overshadow some fascinating research, from necroplanetology to rogue planets to the intimacy of alphanumeric nomenclature.

Climate Change

Men in military uniforms unload sandbags from the back of a truck.

News 14 July 2021

Heating Up the Hot Spots

Climate change is affecting American military operations and infrastructure—and could have security implications across the globe.

Planetary Sciences

Several large telescopes are reflected in water at sunset at a mountaintop observatory in Chile.

News 13 April 2021

Making the Universe Blurrier

Climate change appears to be directly and indirectly affecting the view from at least one observatory while threatening the existence of others.

Atmospheric Sciences

A small plastic disk levitates above an LED array in a vacuum chamber.

News 25 March 2021

Flying Saucers Could One Day Probe the Mesosphere

Researchers have created thin, levitating disks that could be used to study the mesosphere, a layer of Earth’s atmosphere that’s difficult to reach with conventional flyers.

Planetary Sciences

Members of the Perseverance Mars rover team working in the time of COVID-19, either at home (some with family members) or masked in the Mars mission control room

News 17 February 2021

A Bad Time for Mars Time

Thanks to COVID-19, mission control for the Perseverance Mars rover will look emptier than previous missions, and fewer scientists and engineers will follow the rover’s schedule.

Planetary Sciences