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Planetary
astronomer and record-holding “comet hunter” Dr. Carolyn
Shoemaker will speak at Berea College Feb. 24.
Shoemaker has searched the skies, from the American Southwest to the
Australian Outback, for asteroids that pose a danger to the earth.
Her talk “When Are We Going to Get There? The Search for Near-Earth
Objects” is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Phelps Stokes Chapel, and
is the 2005 Berea College Science Lecture.
In all, Shoemaker has discovered more than 800 asteroids and more
comets than any other living astronomer. Her most famous discovery
came in March 1993. Along with her late husband and partner, Gene Shoemaker,
and amateur David Levy, she found Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, actually
a string of 21 separate fragments, which collided with the planet Jupiter
in July 1994. The comet’s advance discovery resulted in the single
most spectacular and most widely studied event ever witnessed in the
solar system, as each object collided with Jupiter over a period of
days. The event was the first time people had observed a comet impact
a planet.
Among the hundreds of asteroids she has discovered, more than 350
are now numbered. Forty-four of the new discoveries are Earth approaching
asteroids.
In addition to her success as an observer, Shoemaker also developed
efficient stereoscopic techniques for scanning films taken with Palomar
Observatory’s 46-cm Schmidt camera. These techniques have made
possible more than a two-fold increase in the rate of sky coverage
with the camera. It is through the pains-taking process of reading
and interpreting these films that discoveries of comets and asteroids
are made.
Over a period of 12 years, beginning in 1984, Shoemaker investigated
meteorite craters and ancient impact structures in Australia, in collaboration
with Gene Shoemaker. In addition to participating in mapping and surveying
many impact sites, the Shoemakers also collected meteorites for terrestrial
age determination.
Shoemaker took up astronomy relatively late in life, in 1980, at the
age of 51, after her children were grown. She has worked with the U.S.
Geological Survey in Astrogeologic Studies since 1980 and she has been
a research professor of Astronomy at Northern Arizona University since
1989. She has been on the staff of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff,
Ariz., since 1993, and continues to be part of a sky survey for comets
with David Levy and his wife, Wendee.
Shoemaker received her bachelor’s and masters degrees from Chico
State College in California. She received an honorary doctor of science
degree from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff in 1990. She has
received numerous honors for her discoveries. In 1988, Carolyn Shoemaker
was awarded, along with Gene Shoemaker, the Rittenhouse Medal by the
Rittenhouse Astronomical Society for the discovery of comets.
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