Eugene Merle Shoemaker

Eugene Merle Shoemaker
Eugene Shoemaker at a stereoscopic microscope
Born	April 28, 1928 (1928-04-28) Los Angeles, California
Died	July 18, 1997 (1997-07-19) (aged 69) Alice Springs, Australia
Alma mater	California Institute of Technology Princeton
Known for	planetary science Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9

Eugene Merle Shoemaker (or Gene Shoemaker) (April 28, 1928 – July 18, 1997), American geologist, was one of the founders of the fields of planetary science. Born in Los Angeles, California, he is best known for co-discovering the Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy.

Contents 1 Scientific contributions 1.1 Astrogeology and Apollo 1.2 Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 2 Death 3 Bibliography 4 References 5 External links

Scientific contributions

Astrogeology and Apollo

For his Ph.D. degree at Princeton (1960), Shoemaker studied the impact dynamics of Barringer Meteor Crater, located near Winslow, Arizona. To understand the dynamics, Shoemaker inspected craters that remained after underground atomic bomb tests at the Nevada Test Site at Yucca Flats. He found a ring of ejected material that included shocked quartz (coesite), a form of quartz that has a microscopically unique structure caused by intense pressure.

Shoemaker helped pioneer the field of astrogeology by founding the Astrogeology Research Program of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1961 at Flagstaff, Arizona and he 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. Shoemaker was also involved in the training of the American astronauts. He himself was a possible candidate for an Apollo Moon flight and was set to be the first geologist to walk on the Moon but was disqualified due to being diagnosed with Addison's disease, a disorder of the adrenal gland. Shoemaker would train astronauts during field trips to Meteor Crater and Sunset Crater near Flagstaff.^[1]

He was awarded the Wetherill Medal from The Franklin Institute in 1965.

Coming to Caltech in 1969, he started a systematic search for Earth orbit-crossing asteroids, which resulted in the discovery of several families of such asteroids, including the Apollo asteroids. Since then, Shoemaker has done more than any other person to advance the idea that sudden geologic changes can arise from asteroid strikes and that asteroid strikes are common over geologic time periods. Previously, astroblemes were thought to be remnants of extinct volcanoes – even on the Moon.

Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9

Shoemaker received the Barringer Medal in 1984 and a National Medal of Science in 1992. In 1993, he co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 using the 18" Schmidt camera at Palomar Observatory. This comet was unique in that it provided the first opportunity for scientists to observe the planetary impact of a comet. Shoemaker–Levy 9 collided with Jupiter in 1994. The resulting impact caused a massive "scar" on the face of Jupiter. Most scientists at the time were dubious of whether there would even be any evident markings on the planet.

Death

Shoemaker spent much of his later years searching for and finding several previously unnoticed or undiscovered meteor craters around the world. It was during one such expedition that Shoemaker died in a head on car accident while on the Tanami Road northwest of Alice Springs, Australia in July 1997. On July 31, 1999, some of his ashes were carried to the Moon by the Lunar Prospector space probe in a capsule designed by Carolyn Porco. To date, he is the only person to have been buried on the Moon.^[2]

The brass foil wrapping of Shoemaker's memorial capsule is inscribed with images of Comet Hale-Bopp, the Barringer Crater, and a quotation from Romeo and Juliet reading

"And, when he shall die
Take him and cut him out in little stars
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun."^[3]

The NEAR-Shoemaker spaceprobe to the asteroid 433 Eros was named in Eugene Shoemaker's honour.

Bibliography

References

External links

• Asteroids: Deadly Impact National Geographic videos
• USGS page about Gene Shoemaker
• NASA page about Gene Shoemaker

Impact cratering on Earth Geology Lists Worldwide Africa Antarctica Asia Australia Europe North America South America by country Confirmed ≥20 km diameter Acraman Amelia Creek Araguainha Beaverhead Boltysh Carswell Charlevoix Chesapeake Bay Chicxulub Clearwater East & West Gosses Bluff Haughton Kamensk Kara Karakul Keurusselkä Lappajärvi Logancha Manicouagan Manson Mistastin Mjølnir Montagnais Morokweng Nördlinger Ries Obolon' Popigai Presqu'île Puchezh-Katunki Rochechouart Saint Martin Shoemaker Siljan Slate Islands Steen River Strangways Sudbury Tookoonooka Vredefort Woodleigh Yarrabubba Topics Alvarez hypothesis breccia coesite complex crater cryptoexplosion ejecta blanket impact crater impact structure impactite K–T boundary Late Heavy Bombardment lechatelierite meteorite moldavite planar deformation features shatter cone shock metamorphism shocked quartz stishovite suevite tektite Research Baldwin, Ralph Belknap Barringer, Daniel Barringer Medal Chao, Edward C T Dietz, Robert S Earth Impact Database Hartmann, William K Impact Field Studies Group Lunar and Planetary Institute Melosh, H Jay Ryder, Graham Schultz, Peter H Shoemaker, Eugene Traces of Catastrophe book Astronomy Observation Catalina Sky Survey Earth-crosser asteroid impact event LINEAR LONEOS meteoroid Meteoritical Society NASA NEAT Near-Earth Object (NEO) NEOSSat Orbit@home Palermo Scale Pan-STARRS planetary science potentially hazardous object Sentry Spacewatch Torino Scale WISE Defense Asteroid-impact avoidance B612 Foundation Gravity tractor Ion Beam Shepherd Spaceguard Potential threats 99942 Apophis 1950 DA 1999 RQ36 2004 VD17 2007 VK184 2011 AG5

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Persondata
Name	Shoemaker, Eugene
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 28, 1928
Place of birth	Los Angeles, California
Date of death	July 18, 1997
Place of death	Alice Springs, Australia