Eugene Merle Shoemaker, also known as Gene, was born on April 28, 1928 in Los Angeles, California. He was very eager to learn and while their family lived in Buffalo, he went to the evening classes at the Buffalo Museum of Science for high school students even though he was still in elementary school. When he was seven, his mother gave him a set of natural-stone marbles. Along with the family’s summer trips in the West, this instigated his interest with rocks and stones and their inner structure. In 1944 when he was only sixteen, he attended the California Institute of Technology where he excelled and got his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in geology in a short period of 3 years.
In the summer of 1948, she started working for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) where he learned how to differentiate between craters caused by underground forces and crater caused by an impact from above. In 1906, Daniel Moreau Barringer proposed that the Meteor Crater outside Flagstaff, Arizona was caused by a meteorite and not a volcano but had no way to prove it. So, Shoemaker examined the crater and confirmed Barringer’s belief. In 1960, with his colleagues, he isolated a mineral they found at Meteor Crater which he named “coesite.” This was the equivalent of a DNA fingerprint for extraterrestrial impact. Eventually he would find more coesite at other craters and basins. This new science was called astrogeology.
In 1973, he established the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey with Caltech geologist, Eleanor Helin. With the observations they gathered, he became one of the earliest people to come up with the theory that a catastrophic asteroid or comet impact could have been the cause of the annihilation of most of life on Earth 65 million years ago, which included the dinosaurs.
During the 1960’s, he was the leader of the teams investigating the structure and history of the moon and helped developed geologic mapping methods from telescope images. He was also the investigator in charge of the geological fieldwork that occurred during the first Apollo missions. He even helped in suggesting where those missions should land.
In 1950, Gene Shoemaker married Carolyn Spellman. Her brother was his roommate at Caltech. After her marriage, she decided to stay at home and raise their three children between 1952 and 1983, so she quit her job as a teacher. When Eleanor Helin left in 1982 to start her own asteroid search, Carolyn took her place after learning how to use the 18-inch Schmidt telescope. She would help her husband in his work. Helping each other, they discovered 32 comets and several hundred asteroids.
In 1993 with David Levy, an amateur astronomer with a degree in English literature from Nova Scotia, they discovered a new object which is now known as the Periodic Comet Shomaker-Levy 9. With further study, it was suggested that this was just another comet that was caught in orbit around Jupiter due to the planet’s gravity. At one point in its path, the gravitational forces had pulled it into 21 fragments that looked like a string of pearls which were now falling into Jupiter.
On July 18, 1997, when the Shoemakers were on a visit to Australia they were in a car crash. Carolyn survived but Gene, at age 69, died from his injuries. Carolyn is still alive and holds the record for most comets discovered.
Works Cited
- Chapman, Mary G. "USGS Astrogeology: Carolyn Shoemaker." USGS Astrogeology Science Center. United States Geological Survey. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/People/CarolynShoemaker/>.
- "Gene Shoemaker." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. Vol. 20. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 335-338. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 10 May 2011.
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