Carolyn S. Shoemaker of Technology, Pasadena, California, and the Palomar Observatory, San Diego, California. That year, Shoemaker was hired at the United States Geological Survey as a visiting scientist in the astronomy branch, and then in 1989 began work as an astronomy research professor at Northern Arizona University. She concentrated her work on searching for comets and planet-crossing asteroids. Teamed with astronomer David H. Levy, the Shoemakers identified Shoemaker-Levy 9, a fragmented comet orbiting the planet Jupiter on March 24, 1993. After Gene's death in 1997, Shoemaker continued to work at the Lowell Observatory with Levy, and continues to work there today. In
Comet ISON Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams identified the object as an asteroid, and it was listed on the Near Earth Objects Confirmation Page. Follow-up observations by independent teams were the first to report cometary features. Therefore, under the International Astronomical Union's comet-naming guidelines, Comet ISON was named after the team that discovered it, rather than the individual discoverers. After it was discovered in 2012, some media sources called Comet ISON the "Comet of the Century" and speculated that it might outshine the full Moon. An "Astronomy Now" columnist wrote in September 2012 that "if predictions hold true then Comet ISON will