Q4 Biography - Gene & Carolyn Shoemaker

    Carolyn jean Spellmann was born in Gallup, New Mexico on June 24th, 1929. She attended Chico State College in California and recieved an MS and BS in history and political science. Gene Shoemaker was born in Los Angeles, California on April 28th, 1928. He graduated from CalTech when he was nineteen. A year later, Gene earned his master's degree and joined the US Geological Survey. Later, he became interested in astronomy after seeing Arizona's Meteor Crater. As a result, he earned his doctorate from Princeton and wrote a thesis on Meteor Craters. Carolyn and Gene were married on August 18th, 1951. Later on, they had three children: Linda, Pat, and Christy.
    The couple settled down in Arizona, where Gene continued to have an active role in the astronomy community. He worked on the Ranger missions to the moon and also helped train astronauts. Gene wanted to be an astronaut himself, but he was unable to do so because he was diagnosed with Addison's disease in 1963. However, he continued working to help other scientists go into space. In 1965, he became the chief scientist of lunar landings.
    From 1969 to 1985, Gene was a professor of geology at CalTech. Carolyn spent many years solely as a mother, but in the early 80s, she started measuring images taken in space. During her observations, she helped to find over 800 asteroids and 32 comets.
   The couple is most known for its discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. David Levy aided in the comet's discovery. Evidence of the comet's existance had been discovered in 1993, but it was later found that the comet had broken up near Jupiter. The fragments of the comet crashed into Jupiter in 1994. As a result of their work in the astronomy field, the couple recieved both the Rittenhouse Medal and the 1995 Scientist of the Year award.
    Gene Shoemaker was killed in a car accident in 1997. Carolyn is still alive today.