Carolyn S. Shoemaker

Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker (June 24, 1929 – August 13, 2021) was an American astronomer and a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9.<ref name="mestel">Template:Cite magazine</ref> She discovered 32 comets (then a record for the most by an individual)<ref name="chapman">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and more than 500 asteroids.<ref name="azc">Template:Cite news</ref>

Having earned degrees in history, political science, and English literature, she had little interest in planetary science until she met and married geologist Eugene Merle Shoemaker. Her career in astronomy began when she demonstrated good stereoscopic vision, a particularly valuable quality for looking for objects in near-Earth space. Despite the fact that her degrees were not in science, having that visual ability motivated the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to hire her as a research assistant on a team led by her husband.<ref name="chapman" /> She went on to making record-setting discoveries in the field of astronomy, as well as being awarded honorary degrees and many professional awards.

Personal life

Shoemaker was born on June 24, 1929, in Gallup, New Mexico, to Hazel and Leonard Spellmann.<ref name="chapman" /><ref name="stange">Template:Cite book</ref> Her family then moved to Chico, California, where she and her brother Richard grew up. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in history, political science, and English literature from Chico State.<ref name="wayne">Template:Cite book</ref>

When her brother attended Caltech, his roommate was a young graduate student named Eugene "Gene" Shoemaker. Carolyn first met him in the summer of 1950 at her brother's wedding.<ref name="chapman" /> After graduating, Shoemaker had moved to New Jersey to begin work toward his doctoral degree at Princeton University. He had flown back to California to serve as Richard's best man. When Shoemaker returned to his studies at Princeton, Carolyn and he maintained a pen pal relationship and later both attended a two-week camping trip on the Cumberland Plateau. They were married on August 18, 1951<ref name="brittanica">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and had three children: Christy, Linda, and Patrick (Pat).<ref name="chapman" />

The Shoemaker family lived in Grand Junction, Colorado, Menlo Park, California, and Pasadena, California, before settling down in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she and her husband worked together at the Lowell Observatory.<ref name="brittanica" /> In 1997, Carolyn and Gene were involved in a car crash in Australia. Gene was killed instantly, while Carolyn sustained severe injuries.<ref name="shoemaker">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Shoemaker died at age 92, after a fall on August 13, 2021.<ref name="traub">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="lpi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Careers

File:Palomar Observatory.jpg

Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California, where Carolyn and Gene Shoemaker recorded many of their astronomical discoveries

Shortly after her marriage, the first job she held was teaching the seventh grade.<ref name="azc" /> Unsatisfied with the teaching profession, she quit to raise a family.<ref name="azc" /> Mary Chapman, author of Shoemaker's biography for the USGS Astrogeology Center, wrote "Carolyn is a warm, caring, and extremely patient woman, but her skills were better suited for a non-teaching environment."<ref name="chapman" /> After her children had grown up and moved out, Shoemaker sought work.<ref name="azc" /> In her youth, she had never been interested in scientific topics.<ref name="chapman" /> She had taken one course in geology, but found it extremely boring.<ref name="chapman" /> However, she reportedly told others that, "listening to Gene explaining geology made what she had thought was a boring subject into an exciting and interesting pursuit of knowledge".<ref name="chapman" />

File:Clark dome.jpg

Clark Dome at Lowell Observatory

File:Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker.jpg

Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker, 1994

At the suggestion of her husband, she began studying astronomy from a student at Lowell Observatory.<ref name="wayne" /> Then she began working as a field assistant for her husband. She worked on his search program mapping and analyzing impact craters.<ref name="wayne" />

Carolyn Shoemaker started her astronomical career in 1980, at age 51, searching for Earth-crossing asteroids and comets at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, and the Palomar Observatory, San Diego, California.<ref name="aapg">Template:Cite news</ref> That year, Shoemaker was hired at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as a visiting scientist in the astronomy branch, and then in 1989 began work as an astronomy research professor at Northern Arizona University.<ref name="wayne" /> She concentrated her work on searching for comets and planet-crossing asteroids.<ref name="brittanica" /> Teamed with astronomer David H. Levy, the Shoemakers identified Shoemaker-Levy 9, a fragmented comet with an orbit that intersected that of Jupiter, on March 24, 1993.<ref name="lang">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="sandt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the 1980s and 1990s, Shoemaker used film taken at the wide-field telescope at the Palomar Observatory, combined with a stereoscope, to find objects that moved against the background of fixed stars.<ref name="chapman" />

Following recovery from the injuries she suffered in the 1997 automobile crash in which her husband was killed, she resumed her work at the Lowell Observatory with Levy.<ref name="shoemaker" /> She was actively involved in astronomical observation work until at least 2002.<ref name="chapman" /> Template:As of Shoemaker had been credited with discovering or co-discovering 32 comets and over 500 asteroids.<ref name="azc" />

Awards and honors

The Hildian asteroid 4446 Carolyn, discovered by colleague Edward Bowell at Lowell Observatory in 1985, was named in her honor.<ref name="mpc-object">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1988, Shoemaker received the Rittenhouse Medal of the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society.<ref name="lang" /> In 1995, she received the Scientist of the Year Award, also from the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1996, Shoemaker received an honorary doctorate degree from the Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.<ref name="chapman" /> In 1998, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences named both of the Shoemakers as the recipients of the James Craig Watson Medal.<ref name="nasonline">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Carolyn Shoemaker formation within Gale crater, forms part of the broader Mount Sharp group was named after her. The formation is the layer of rocks that forms the strata within Glen Torridon - the layer of phyllosilicate rocks which was one of the primary objectives of the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity during its ascent of Aeolis Mons.Template:Cn

List of discovered minor planets

Template:As of Shoemaker is tied with Takeshi Urata for Template:Ordinal place on the Minor Planet Center's list of most discoveries with 377 numbered minor planets between the years 1980 and 1994.<ref name="mpc-discoverers">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 794703

 | name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=794703|2=^nm}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | nm0794703/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
   | name/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+%0A++++++%7C+%7B%7B%7Bname%7D%7D%7D%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
   }}
 }}{{#if: 794703  {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch: bio
 | award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
 }}}} {{#if: 
 | {{{name}}}
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at IMDb{{#if: 794703{{#property:P345}}
 | Template:EditAtWikidata
 | Template:Main other

}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=794703|plain=false}}

 | 1 | 3 =  Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
 | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}