- Astronomer, expert on comets and asteroids.
- Co-discoverer in 1993 with astronomer David Levy and her husband Gene of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, whose shattered pieces collided with the planet Jupiter the next year. Discover or co-discoverer of more than 30 other comets, twice as many as any other woman in history, and of hundreds of asteroids.
- She grew up in Chico, California.
- She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in history, political science, and English literature at what is now California State University, Chico.
- She met her future husband, geologist Gene Shoemaker, at her brother's wedding; he was her brother's roommate at the California Institute of Technology.
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