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Eugene Shoemaker at a stereoscopic microscope used for asteroid discovery

Eugene Shoemaker wearing a Bell rocket belt while training astronauts.

Eugene Merle Shoemaker (or Gene Shoemaker) (April 28, 1928 – July 18, 1997) was one of the founders of the fields of planetary science.

Born in Los Angeles, California, he is best known for co-discovering the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy.

For his Ph.D. at Princeton (1960), Dr. Shoemaker conclusively showed that Barringer Meteor Crater, located near Winslow, Arizona, arose from a meteor impact. Shoemaker has done more than any other person to advance the idea that sudden geologic changes can arise from asteroid strikes and that asteroid strikes are common over geologic time periods. Previously, astroblemes were thought to be remnants of extinct volcanoes -- even on the Moon.

Shoemaker gained this insight after inspecting craters that remained after underground atomic bomb tests at the Nevada Test Site at Yucca Flats. He found a ring of ejected material; in both cases it included shocked quartz (coesite), a form of quartz that has a microscopically unique structure caused by intense pressure.

Dr. Shoemaker helped pioneer the field of astrogeology by founding the Astrogeology Research Program of the USGS in 1961. He was its first director. He was prominently involved in the Lunar Ranger missions to the Moon, which showed that the Moon was covered with a wide size range of impact craters. Dr. Shoemaker was also involved in the training of the American astronauts. He was set to be the first scientist to walk on the Moon but was disqualified due to being diagnosed with Addison's disease, a disorder of the adrenal gland.

Coming to Caltech in 1969, he started a systematic search for Earth orbit-crossing asteroids, which resulted in the discovery of several families of such asteroids, including the Apollo asteroids.

Dr. Shoemaker received a National Medal of Science in 1992. In 1993, he co-discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. This comet was unique in that it provided the first opportunity for scientists to observe the planetary impact of a comet. Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter in 1994. The resulting impact caused a massive "scar" on the face of Jupiter. Most scientists at the time were dubious of whether there would even be any evident markings on the planet.

Dr. Shoemaker died in a car accident on the Tanami Road northwest of Alice Springs, Australia in July of 1997. Some of his ashes were carried to the Moon by the Lunar Prospector space probe. To date, he is the only person to have been buried on the moon.

• Deadly Impact: Deadly Impact National Geographic videos
• USGS page about Gene Shoemaker
• NASA page about Gene Shoemaker