Carolyn Shoemaker
Carolyn Shoemaker, born Carolyn Spellman Shoemaker in 1929 in Gallup, New Mexico, emerged as a prominent figure in astronomy later in life. After completing her education in history and political science at California State University, Chico, she briefly worked as a teacher before marrying Eugene Shoemaker in 1951. Initially a full-time mother, Carolyn's interest in planetary science grew as she accompanied her husband on geological field work. At the age of fifty-one, she officially began her career in astronomy by assisting with asteroid surveys, where her keen skills in identifying celestial bodies became evident.
Together with her husband and collaborator David Levy, she discovered numerous comets and asteroids, including the notable Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet, which famously collided with Jupiter in 1994—an event that significantly impacted how scientists viewed the threat of space objects to Earth. Throughout her career, Shoemaker received various awards and honors, including the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA. Despite a tragic car accident in 1997 that claimed her husband’s life, Carolyn continued to contribute to the field until her passing in 2022. Her work not only advanced astronomical research but also served as an inspiration for many, demonstrating that a formal scientific background is not a prerequisite for making significant contributions to science.
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Carolyn Shoemaker
- Born: June 24, 1929
- Birthplace: Gallup, New Mexico
- Died: August 13, 2021
- Place of death: Flagstaff, Arizona
American astronomer
Twentieth-century American astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker discovered more than thirty comets, including Shoemaker-Levy 9, which struck Jupiter in 1994. Over the course of her career, Shoemaker discovered hundreds of asteroids and thirty-two comets. Her work in astronomy began when she started working as a field assistant for her husband, geologist Eugene Shoemaker.
Primary field: Astronomy
Specialty: Observational astronomy
Early Life
Carolyn Spellman Shoemaker was born in Gallup, New Mexico, in 1929. Her father, Leonard, was a rancher who later opened a clothing store. Her mother, Hazel Arthur, worked as a school teacher before marrying. Shoemaker was the family’s second child. Her older brother was named Richard. The family moved to Chico, California, shortly after her birth.
After high school, Shoemaker enrolled at California State University in Chico, where she earned both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in history and political science, as well as credentials to teach at the high school level. Uncertain about her career path, she became a seventh-grade teacher. However, Shoemaker did not enjoy the experience and left teaching after one year.
In 1950, at her brother’s wedding, she met Eugene (“Gene”) Shoemaker, who had been her brother’s roommate at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and was serving as the best man at his wedding. They corresponded during her year of teaching and were married on August 18, 1951. Shortly after their wedding, Shoemaker began accompanying her husband during his field work in geology, searching for new sources of uranium.
The Shoemakers had three children, and Shoemaker became a full-time mother. She and the children accompanied Gene during summer field work. He was a natural teacher and explained much about his work to his wife and children.
Life's Work
In 1963, after several moves, the family relocated to Flagstaff, Arizona, where the US Geological Survey had established a training center for astronauts in preparation for the Apollo moon launch. Lowell Observatory had agreed to offer its Clark Telescope to obtain images for a lunar landing site. Also located at the observatory was the US Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Center, which was beginning to prepare lunar maps for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). During this time, both Shoemakers earned their airplane pilot license.
The family moved to California when Gene accepted a position at Caltech, his alma mater. It was there, while watching the Project Voyager images of flying past Jupiter in real time, that Shoemaker became captivated by planetary science.
After her children had grown, she began assisting with the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey, which Gene and Eleanor Helin had begun at Caltech in 1973, in order to search for asteroids approaching Earth. She found it easy to use the stereomicroscope that her husband and Helin had designed specifically for use with the Palomar telescope. Realizing her skill at finding asteroids, Gene Shoemaker relied on his wife to scan images taken by the Palomar machine.
Shoemaker was fifty-one years old before she officially embarked on a career in astronomy. In 1980, the US Geological Survey Center offered her a position as a visiting scientist. Nine years later, she became a research professor of astronomy at Northern Arizona University. Along with her husband, she was also on the staff of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
For twelve years, beginning in 1984, the Shoemakers traveled annually to the Australian Outback to study crater impacts. They used Landsat images taken from space to identify land features. After four years of work, they had increased the known number of craters in Australia from ten to eighteen. They used their observations of more than twenty craters to hypothesize about the surface of the moon.
The Shoemakers began the Palomar Asteroid and Comet Survey (PACS) in 1983, utilizing a 0.46-meter Schmidt telescope. Along with Canadian astronomer David Levy, they usually spent one week each month in California, northeast of San Diego, where the Palomar Observatory was located. The team divided duties: Gene readied the film, while Levy set the camera’s focus and moved the telescope into position. Shoemaker’s task was to look through the stereomicroscope at images in pairs taken at different times, to see if she could spot movement. During that time, the team took more than three hundred photographs. It was at Palomar in 1993 that the trio, who by then had been working together for a decade, first saw the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet.
Shoemaker identified thirty-two comets and hundreds of asteroids with her husband, with a discovery rate of one comet found for every one hundred hours of examining photographs. A typical night of searching typically lasted thirteen hours. As an ardent observer of the night sky, Shoemaker reset her body clock to stay up all night and sleep during the day.
In 1988, she and her husband were jointly awarded the Rittenhouse Medal by the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society. In 1990, Northern Arizona University of Flagstaff awarded Shoemaker an honorary doctoral degree in science. Five years later, she and her husband received the Scientists of the Year Award. In 1996, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration presented Shoemaker with the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.
In 1997, the Shoemakers were in a serious head-on car crash en route to Goat Paddock Crater in Australia. Although Shoemaker recovered from extensive injuries and later returned to her career, her husband, Gene, was killed. Despite eventually retiring, she still made advisory contributions, gave speeches, and sometimes attended events held in honor of the field, including 2019's Lunar Legacy event held in Flagstaff. On August 13, 2022, Shoemaker died at a hospital in Flagstaff at the age of ninety-two.
Impact
Prior to the Jupiter event in the summer of 1994, scientists had not taken seriously the idea that a comet or other astral body might actually strike Earth. The comet collision on Jupiter changed that opinion. As a consequence, the US Air Force began searching for asteroids at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. More than nineteen thousand asteroids were discovered within less than a year. An asteroid one-kilometer-long or more could cause significant damage to Earth; twenty-six of the nineteen thousand asteroids observed in 1994 were at least that size. Astronomers went on to chart a significant percentage of the near-Earth objects (NEOs), which include satellites and space debris, as well as tools and cameras that astronauts have dropped. In addition, using photographs from orbit and from air, scientists have identified more than 150 craters on Earth as probable sites of comet impact. Scientists have considered the possibility that ancient comet impacts created the chains of craters observed on icy moons.
NASA used images of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact as part of its Small Bodies—Big Impacts curriculum in 2011. The photographs, taken by the Galileo probe and the Hubble Space Telescope, were the only ones existing at the time of a comet crashing into a planet.
Through her diligent searching of the night sky photographs, Shoemaker encouraged further exploration. The fact that she received no formal training as a scientist has encouraged others with an interest in astronomy or other fields of science. In 2006, she was present at the dedication of the Shoemaker Open Sky Planetarium. Through her public speaking and articles, Shoemaker continued to inspire a love of astronomy.
Bibliography
Armstrong, Mabel. Women Astronomers: Reaching for the Stars. Marcola: Stone Pine, 2008. Print.
Ferris, Timothy. Seeing in the Dark: How Amateur Astronomers are Discovering the Wonders of the Universe. New York: Simon, 2002. Print.
Levy, David H. David Levy’s Guide to Observing and Discovering Comets. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.
Minard, Anne. Pluto and Beyond: A Story of Discovery, Adversity, and Ongoing Exploration. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland, 2007. Print.
Traub, Alex. "Carolyn Shoemaker, Hunter of Comets and Asteroids, Dies at 92." The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/science/space/carolyn-shoemaker-dead.html. Accessed 2 Sept. 2022.