I have just heard a news report that the co-discoverer of Comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9, Eugene Shoemaker, was killed in an automobile
accident in Australia while on a trip to search for meteorites.
If true, this is another great loss to the astronomical community.
I never met Mr. Shoemaker, but I remember his eloquence and kind humor
and broad base of knowledge that was evidence whenever he appeared in
the media to help disseminate factual information about astronomy and
his profession. I, and many others, will miss him. My condolences to
his family and colleagues.

From: peter@max.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Jenniskens)
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 13:47:22 -0700
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Sad news

NEO News (7/18/97)

FRiends:

I just received the shocking and tragic news of the death of Gene
Shoemaker, the founder and leading advocate of many NEO studies.  Truly he
is the father of our field of science.  Following is the initial notice
posted by Sky & Telescope.

David Morrison

- -----------------------------------------------------

Gene Shoemaker, 1928 - 1997

The world has lost one of its most renowned scientists with the death of
Eugene
Shoemaker at age 69.  On the afternoon of July 18th, Gene and his wife,
Carolyn,
were involved in a car accident in central Australia.  He was fatally injured;
Carolyn suffered broken ribs but is expected to recover.  The pair had arrived
in Australia just six days before to study some of the continent's numerous
impact craters -- an annual trek Down Under that they'd made a habit in recent
years.

Best known for his pioneering work in elucidating the mechanics of impacts and
in the discovery of Earth-crossing bodies, Gene gained worldwide fame in March
1993 for his discovery, with Carolyn and colleague David Levy, of a comet that
would strike Jupiter 16 months later. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was just one
of the
finds that made this husband-wife team the leading comet discoverers of this
century. They are also credited with discovering more than 800 asteroids.  But
the one research interest he never tired of was Meteor Crater, the
kilometer-wide pit east of Flagstaff, Arizona.

While still in his teens, Gene realized that someday astronauts would walk on
the Moon, and from that point forward his whole professional life would be
directed toward becoming one of them.  But a medical condition prevented him
from ever being selected for the Apollo program.  "Not going to the Moon and
banging on it with my own hammer has been the biggest disappointment in life,"
he said last year. "But then, I probably wouldn't have gone to Palomar
Observatory to take some 25,000 films of the night sky with Carolyn -- she
scanned them all -- and we wouldn't have had the thrills of finding those
funny
things that go bump in the night."


..........................................................................
 
 Peter Jenniskens       
             
   The SETI Institute                    e-mail: peter@max.arc.nasa.gov       
   NASA Ames Research Center                tel: (415) 604-3086
   Mail Stop 239-4                          fax: (415) 604-1088
   Moffett Field, CA  94035-1000  
                                   http://www-space.arc.nasa.gov/~leonid/

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