Eugene Shoemaker
The founder of planetary geology, who proved Meteor Crater was an impact and co-discovered the comet that hit Jupiter.
Key facts
- Born
- 1928
- Died
- 1997
- Nationality
- American
- Field
- Geologist
Eugene Merle Shoemaker joined the US Geological Survey at the age of 20. While studying volcanic rocks and the craters left by nuclear test explosions, he became convinced that Meteor Crater in Arizona was made by an impact, and in his doctoral work he mapped it in great detail.
In 1960 he and Edward Chao found coesite, a mineral formed only at enormous pressures, in rock from the crater. Shoemaker also showed that the layers of rock in its rim were folded back on themselves, exactly as in craters from nuclear tests. Together, the evidence proved the impact beyond doubt, and the next year the same methods proved that the Ries basin in Germany was an impact crater.
Shoemaker founded the branch of the US Geological Survey that studies other worlds, trained Apollo astronauts in geology and helped plan the Moon landings. He had hoped to go to the Moon himself, but a medical condition ruled him out. Later he and his wife Carolyn searched the sky for asteroids and comets that cross Earth's orbit. With David Levy in 1993 they discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9, which crashed into Jupiter in 1994.
Shoemaker died in a car accident in Australia in 1997 while studying craters. In 1999 some of his ashes were carried to the Moon by the Lunar Prospector spacecraft, the only person to have been laid to rest there.
Did you know?
NASA renamed the NEAR spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker in his honour after his death; it landed on the asteroid Eros in 2001.
Shoemaker trained the Apollo astronauts to spot impact features by taking them to Meteor Crater.
On the timeline
- 1960Coesite proves Meteor Crater was an impact
- 1961The Ries basin in Germany is shown to be a crater
- 16–22 July 1994A comet strikes Jupiter
- 12 February 2001NEAR Shoemaker lands on an asteroid
See more
The Canyon Diablo meteoriteBarringer Crater (Meteor Crater) craterNördlinger Ries crater