Carolyn S. Shoemaker
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Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker (June 24, 1929 – August 13, 2021) was an American astronomer and a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. She discovered 32 comets (then a record for the most by an individual) and more than 500 asteroids. Having earned degrees in history, political science, and English literature, she had little interest in science until she met and married geologist Eugene Merle Shoemaker. Her career in astronomy began when she demonstrated good
stereoscopic vision Stereopsis () is the component of depth perception retrieved through binocular vision. Stereopsis is not the only contributor to depth perception, but it is a major one. Binocular vision happens because each eye receives a different image becaus ...
, 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 The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
(Caltech) to hire her as a research assistant on a team led by her husband. She went on to making record-setting discoveries in the field of astronomy, as well as being awarded honorary degrees and many profession awards.


Personal life

Shoemaker was born on June 24, 1929, in Gallup,
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
, to Hazel and Leonard Spellmann. Her family then moved to Chico,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, 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. 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. After graduating, Shoemaker had moved to New Jersey to begin work toward his doctoral degree at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
. 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 Pen pals (or penpals, pen-pals, penfriends or pen friends) are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail. Pen pals are usually strangers whose relationship is based primarily, or even solely, on their exchange of let ...
relationship and later both attended a two-week camping trip on the Cumberland Plateau. They were married on August 18, 1951 and had three children: Christy, Linda, and Patrick (Pat). The Shoemaker family lived in
Grand Junction, Colorado Grand Junction is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 65,560 at the 2020 United States Census, making Grand Junction the 17th mo ...
,
Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...
, and Pasadena, California, before settling down in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she and her husband worked together at the Lowell Observatory. In 1997, Carolyn and Gene were involved in a car crash in Australia. Gene was killed instantly, while Carolyn sustained severe injuries. Shoemaker died at age 92, after a fall on August 13, 2021.


Careers

Shortly after her marriage, the first job she held was teaching the seventh grade. Unsatisfied with the teaching profession, she quit to raise a family. 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." After her children had grown up and moved out, Shoemaker sought work. In her youth, she had never been interested in scientific topics. She had taken one course in geology, but found it extremely boring. 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". At the suggestion of her husband, she began studying astronomy from a student at Lowell Observatory. Then she began working as a field assistant for her husband. She worked on his search program mapping and analyzing impact craters. Carolyn Shoemaker started her astronomical career in 1980, at age 51, searching for
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
-crossing asteroids and
comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
s at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, and the Palomar Observatory,
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
, California. That year, Shoemaker was hired at the
United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
(USGS) as a visiting scientist in the astronomy branch, and then in 1989 began work as an astronomy research professor at Northern Arizona University. She concentrated her work on searching for comets and planet-crossing asteroids. Teamed with astronomer David H. Levy, the Shoemakers identified Shoemaker-Levy 9, a fragmented comet with an orbit that intersected that of
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
, on March 24, 1993. In the 1980s and 1990s, Shoemaker used film taken at the wide-field
telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observ ...
at the Palomar Observatory, combined with a
stereoscope A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image. A typical stereoscope provides each eye with a lens that makes the ima ...
, to find objects that moved against the background of fixed stars. 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. She was actively involved in astronomical observation work until at least 2002. Shoemaker had been credited with discovering or co-discovering 32 comets and over 500 asteroids.


Awards and honors

The Hildian asteroid 4446 Carolyn, discovered by colleague
Edward Bowell Edward L. G. "Ted" Bowell (born 1943 in London), is an American astronomer. Bowell was educated at Emanuel School London, University College, London, and the University of Paris. He was principal investigator of the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth ...
at Lowell Observatory in 1985, was named in her honor. In 1988, Shoemaker received the
Rittenhouse Medal The Rittenhouse Medal is awarded by the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society for outstanding achievement in the science of Astronomy. The medal was one of those originally minted to commemorate the Bi-Centenary of the birth of David Rittenhouse on April ...
of the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society. She received the Scientist of the Year Award in 1995. In 1996, Shoemaker received an
honorary doctorate degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
from the Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal. In 1998, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences named both of the Shoemakers as the recipients of the
James Craig Watson Medal 400px, James Craig Watson Medal The James Craig Watson Medal was established by the bequest of James Craig Watson, an astronomer the University of Michigan between 1863 and 1879, and is awarded every 1-4 years by the U.S. National Academy of Scien ...
.


List of discovered minor planets

Shoemaker is tied with Takeshi Urata for place on the Minor Planet Center's list of most discoveries with 377 numbered
minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''mino ...
s between the years 1980 and 1994.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shoemaker, Carolyn S. American women astronomers Women planetary scientists Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets 1929 births 2021 deaths People from Gallup, New Mexico California State University, Chico alumni Northern Arizona University faculty Palomar Observatory People from Flagstaff, Arizona 20th-century American astronomers 21st-century American astronomers * 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists Planetary scientists American women academics