Asterias rathbuni is a starfish native to the Pacific coasts of Alaska in the United States and Far East Russia. There are two subspecies.

Taxonomy According to Addison Emery Verrill it may have first been collected in 1881-1883 by the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska, where some starfish of the genus Asterias were collected at a depth of 7 fathoms on a pebbly seabed just off of Port Clarence. The species was first described by Verrill as Allasterias rathbuni in 1909 as the type species for his new genus Allasterias. He commemorated Richard Rathbun, curator of marine invertebrates at the United States National Museum, in the specific epithet. He described three varieties: the nominate, var. anomala and var. nortonensis (named after the Norton Sound in Alaska). The variety anomala was described by Verrill in this 1909 work from St. Michael Island in the southeast of Norton Sound.