Eugene Shoemaker

Eugene Shoemaker (or Gene Shoemaker) (April 28, 1928 - July 18, 1997) was one of the founders of the field of planetary science, best known for co-discovering the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, with his wife Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy[?].

For his Ph.D. at Princeton, Dr. Shoemaker conclusively showed that Barringer Meteor Crater arose from meteor impact.

Dr. Shoemaker founded the Astrogeology Research Program[?] of the USGS in 1961 and was its first director. He was prominently involved in the Lunar Ranger[?] missions to the Moon, which showed that the Moon was covered with a wide size range of impact craters. Dr. Shoemaker was also involved in the training of the American astronauts.

Coming to Caltech in 1969, he started a systematic search for Earth-crossing asteroids, which resulted in the discovery of several families of such asteroids, including the Apollo asteroids[?].

Dr. Shoemaker received a National Medal of Science in 1992. In 1993, he co-discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which was the first observed planetary impact of a comet.

Dr. Shoemaker perished in a car crash in Alice Springs, Australia in 1997. His ashes were carried to the Moon by the Lunar Prospector[?] space probe.

External Links and References

• USGS page about Gene Shoemaker (http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/People/GeneShoemaker/)
• NASA page about Gene Shoemaker (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/news81.html)