California Institute of Technology a polynomial algorithm for linear programming known as Karmarkar's algorithm. Other alumni have turned their gaze to the universe. C. Gordon Fullerton (BS 1957, MS 1958) piloted the third Space Shuttle mission. Astronaut (and later, United States Senator) Harrison Schmitt (BS 1957) was the only geologist to have ever walked on the surface of the moon. Astronomer Eugene Merle Shoemaker (BS 1947, MS 1948) co-discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (a comet which crashed into the planet Jupiter) and was the first person buried on the moon (by having his ashes crashed into the moon). Astronomer George O. Abell (BS 1951, MS
Astronomical symbols Ω (capital omega), which was originally a typographical substitute for the astronomical symbol. The symbols for aspects first appear in Byzantine codices. Of the symbols for the five Ptolemaic aspects, only the three displayed here—for conjunction, opposition, and quadrature—are used in astronomy. Symbols for a comet (☄) and a star () have been used in published astronomical observations of comets. In tables of these observations, ☄ stood for the comet being discussed and for the star of comparison relative to which measurements of the comet's position were made. Astronomical symbols Astronomical symbols are abstract pictorial symbols used to represent astronomical