[1] It was named after Frank Howe Bradley, who collected, in Panama, the type specimen described by Verrill.

Bradley's sea star has five arms that are banded in lighter and darker shades of red or red-brown.

[2] Bradley's sea star lives in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Mexico to Chile, including the Gulf of California.

[4] It lives on rocky bottoms and coral reefs[2] from the intertidal zone to 50 metres (160 ft) deep.

[5] This temperature range is cooler than a typical tropical fish tank, so this sea star is not collected for the aquarium trade.