[meteorite-list] NPA 07-21-1997 Shoemaker Killed in Car Accident

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun May 15 16:21:42 2005
Message-ID: <BAY104-F2142B7C081A2B962CFFC3B3140_at_phx.gbl>

Paper: The Frederick Post
City: Frederick, Maryland
Date: Monday, July 21, 1997
Page: A-5

Asteroid crater expert killed in car accident

     PHOENIX (AP) - Eugene Shoemaker, the geologist-astronomer who warned
about the dangers of asteroids hitting Earth, died in a car accident in
Australia during an annual search for craters. He was 69.
     Mr. Shoemaker was killed Friday in a two-car crash on a dirt road about
310 miles north of Alice Springs.
     His wife, fellow Lowell Observatory astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker, 67,
suffered hip and chest injuries but was in stable condition at Alice Springs
Hospital, authorities said.
     The driver of the other car hospitalized with minor injuries, but his
wife and their daughters, 5 and 8, escaped injury.
     The Shoemakers discovered about 20 comet and 800 asteroids but were
best known for the co-discovery with amateur astronomer David Levy of the
comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which broke up and smashed into Jupiter's gaseous
atmosphere in 1994. The team had been searching the sky for new comets.
     It was his fascination with asteroid impacts - such as the one which
caused Meteor Crater near his home in Flagstaff - which drove most of his
work.
     "Any area he went into, his contributions stood in mammoth proportion
above the rest of us mortals," said Laurence Soderblom, a colleague of Mr.
Shoemaker's who is working on the Mars Pathfinder mission.
     News of Mr. Shoemaker's death cast a pall over the Pathfinder
scientists, many of whom had been Mr. Shoemaker's students or colleagues.
NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin called Mr. Shoemaker "one of the most
renown planetary scientists in the world."
     Mr. Shoemaker, a geologist by training, was a leading expert on craters
and the interplanetary collisions which caused them. He first proved to the
scientific community that it was indeed the result of an asteroid impact,
said University Arizona planetary scientist Larry Lebofsky.
     He also wrote an influential paper in the early 1960's comparing Meteor
Crater with a large crater on the moon.
     The Shoemakers had gone to Australia on an annual trip to search for
asteroid impact craters in the outback, said Edward Bowell, a fellow
astronomer at the Lowell Observatory.
     "I think Gene Shoemaker is arguably one of the great founders of
planetary science." Mr. Bowell said. "He more or less single-handedly
created the field of impacts...and he was the one who started bringing to
other scientists and the public's attention the danger of the impacts of
comets and asteroids on the Earth. He was really one of a kind in that
sense."
     Mr. Shoemaker founded the U.S. Geological Survey's Center of
Astrogeology in Flagstaff in 1961 and served as the center's chief
scientist. He also was involved in several U.S. space missions, including
the Apollo missions to the moon - he taught the astronauts about craters
before they left Earth.
     Mr. Shoemaker had wanted to be an astronaut but was rejected because of
a medical problem, Mr. Bowell said.
     In a February 1996 interview, Mr. Shoemaker said he hoped for more
manned space missions soon - to nearby asteroids, if not to the planet Mars.
     "I don't think I will live long enough to see us get to Mrs." Mr.
Shoemaker said.
     Besides his wife, survivors include two daughters, Linda Salazar and
Christine Woodard of Los Angeles; and a son Patrick, of Iowa. Funeral plans
were incomplete.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
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The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.
Received on Sun 15 May 2005 04:21:39 PM PDT