Eugene shoemaker biography summary rubric

(b. Los Angeles, California, 28 April, 1928; d.

Eugene shoemaker biography summary rubric

near Alice Springs, Australia, 18 July 1997), space science, astrogeology, studies of the populations of comets and asteroids, specifically those that could strike the Earth.

Shoemaker began a new science—the history of the solar system and the often violent interactions among the planets—called astrogeology.

His early studies of lunar craters suggested that these features were the result of impacts, and that the crater record could provide an indication of the level of risk by impact to the Earth. These studies led to his training of astronauts for the Apollo program in the 1960s.

Shoemaker’s interests then turned from the effects of impact to the objects themselves, the comets and asteroids that do the impacting. This phase of his career reached its climax in July 1994, when the comet he helped to discover, Shoemaker-Levy 9, collided with Jupiter in a cosmic and forceful demonstration of his ideas.