- Ironically killed in an impact himself: a head-on crash on a blind curve in the road, during a trip to Australia to search for craters. His wife Carolyn and the other driver survived with injuries.
- Co-discoverer in 1993 with Carolyn and astronomer David Levy of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, whose shattered pieces collided with the planet Jupiter the next year. Also co-discovered with Carolyn many other comets and hundreds of asteroids.
- In January 1998 he received the unprecedented honor of having a portion of his ashes launched to the Moon (aboard the Lunar Prospector probe).
- Astronomer and geologist; leading expert on impact craters.
- Received his Ph.D. at Princeton University, 1960, with a thesis on Meteor Crater, Arizona, USA.
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