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Best known for his pioneering work in
elucidating the mechanics of impacts and in the discovery of Earth-crossing
bodies, Gene gained worldwide fame in March 1993 for his discovery, with Carolyn
and colleague David Levy, of a comet that would strike Jupiter 16 months later.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was just one of the finds that made this husband-wife
team the leading comet discoverers of this century. They are also credited with
discovering more than 800 asteroids. But the one research interest he never
tired of was Meteor Crater, the kilometer-wide pit east of Flagstaff, Arizona.
Eugene
Shoemaker's passion was Astrogeology. He dreamed
of going to the Moon.
Credited with inventing the branch of Astrogeology within the U.S.
Geological Survey, his contributions to the field and the study of impact
craters, lunar science, asteroids, and comets are legendary. Though his own
career as an astronaut/geologist was sidelined by a health problem, he helped
train the Apollo astronauts in geology and the investigation of the
lunar surface. Seen here at Meteor
Crater, Arizona in the mid 1960s, Shoemaker
was killed in a tragic car accident in July 1997. He is survived by his wife
and professional colleague, Carolyn, and children. In
a fitting tribute conceived by a former student, Eugene Shoemaker's ashes
were placed on-board the
Lunar Prospector spacecraft which has
now successfully completed a polar mapping scientific mission of the Moon
and impacted the
lunar surface.
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