A thought while watching TV...

[gridlore]

Watching a show on the History Channel about meteors, and of Dr. Gene Shoemaker is featured heavily. He was the biggest proponent of catastrophic collisions as a regular event in a period when nobody really believed in it. Dr. Shoemaker identified hundreds of craters on Earth, made the shocking claim that the Hellas Basin on Mars was the result of a massive, very recent impact, and of course was co-discoverer of Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet that proved his theories correct.

He was killed in 1997, a car accident in Australia. Part of me wonders if he had the time to savor the irony of the foremost expert in cosmic collisions dying in a head-on collision.

Comments

[10binary-cats.livejournal.com]

Considering they were the only 2 cars for at least 100 miles in any direction... yes, i think he does.

[delta-november.livejournal.com]

I assume you're aware that a sample of his ashes was flown on Lunar Prospector, which ended the mission with a lunar impact. A fitting sendoff.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I'd read that, and found it most fitting.