David+Levy

 DAVID H. LEVY 

 //"Comets are like cats; they have tails,//  //and they do precisely what they want."//

__Biography__ David H. Levy, famous Canadian astronomer and award-winning science writer was born on May 22, 1948  Montreal, Quebec, Canada. As a child, Levy took a deep interest in astronomy, which he attributes to his first seeing a shooting star, which he declared was “an epiphany moment”. Despite this fascination, Levy pursued bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature, however throughout his studies never took anythingrelated to astronomy. In 1967, after getting into a disagreement with prestigious members of its administration Levy was nearly dismissed from the Royal Society of Canada’s Montreal Centre, where one senior official stated “Levy will never amount to nothing.” Much to the member’s of RASC surprise, Levy went on to discover 41 asteroids and 22 comets, nine of which were discovered using his own backyard telescope. Alongside Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker, Levy is most famous for co-discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which collided with Jupiter in 1994, an occurrence leading to one of the most sensational explosions ever witnessed in the solar system. Levi is the author or editor of 35 books, as well as various scientific works including magazines and literary journals. On February 28 2010, Levy successfully received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. David Levy currently lives with his wife Wendee in Vail, Arizona, and the two host a weekly radio show on astronomy, and he remains occupied with his astronomical duties as President of the National Sharing the Sky Foundation.

// dream about what's up there, make a few observations, and just enjoy the night sky" //
__ Academic Achievements __

 David Levy began his academic triumph by receiving his B.A. from Acadia University in English Literature in 1972 and his M.A. from Queen’s University in English Literature in 1979. He has since been awarded the prestigious honorary doctorate degrees from Queen’s University in 1994, Acadia University in 1995, McGill University in 2003, University of Tampa in 2004 and the State University of New York, Plattsburgh in 2005. David has recently received on February 28, 2010 his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his successful completion of his thesis “The Sky in Early Modern English Literature: A Study of Allusions to Celestial Events in Elizabethan and Jacobean Writing 1572-1620”. He is also an honorary scientist and member of the National Advisory Board for the Flandrau Science Center in Tucson, Arizona, as well as President of the Kingston Centre and of the Montreal Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, the same society which once stated he would “amount to nothing”.

__Contributions to Astronomy__  David Levy began his telescopic quest to discover comets on December 17, 1965, which later resulted in 8 visual comet discoveries, 13 photographic co-discoveries with Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker, as well as a catalogue filled with more than 300 deep sky objects. Due to the fact that David has discovered 22 comets, he is tied for  third place in history for the largest number of comets found by an individual, and is also the first to discover comets visually, electronically, and photographically. Due to his numerous discoveries, and his immense contribution to astronomy and science alone, Levy was recognized on both the international and national scale. In 1998, Levy won an Emmy for being a part of the writing team for the Discovery Channel documentary, “Three Minutes to Impact”. His writing has proven influential to many, where he is the Science Editor for “Parade Magazine” which has nearly 80 million readers, a quarter of the population of the United States, as well as being contributing editor for “Sky and Telescope Magazine” where he writes its monthly "Star Trails" column, along with the monthly "Nightfall" column for the Canadian Magazine “Skynews”. Levy is also an avid speaker on astronomical topics, where he has given over 1000 lectures and interviews, as well as made appearances on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and the National Geographic special “Asteroids: Deadly Impact”. One of his thrilling accomplishments was his appearance on ABC's World News Tonight, alongside the Shoemakers, where the three were named Persons of the Week for July 22, 1994. Currently he and his wife host a weekly radio show, and he is President of the National Sharing the Sky Foundation, an organization whose mission is to inspire future generations to develop an interest in the sciences.

__ Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 __ <span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 18px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: normal;"> David Levy’s most profound accomplishment occurred on March 24, 1993, when he co-discovered the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 along with the Shoemakers. The comet was discovered while the trio was conducting a program designed to uncover near-Earth objects, where they captured the comet in a photograph taken with the 0.4 m Schmidt telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory in California. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a ninth periodic comet, thus giving it its name along with its discovered, and was their eleventh comet discovery as a team. The discovery of this comet was extremely important in that it revealed that it was an unusual comet,

which lay only 4 degrees from Jupiter as seen from Earth, meaning it was physically extremely close to a giant planet. The comet was also peculiar in structure, where the image showed multiple nuclei in a region approximately 50 arcseconds long and 10 arcseconds wide. The placement and structure of this comet thus suggested that the comet had been disrupted by Jupiter’s gravity. Thus, it was no surprise that in July 1994, the comet broke apart upon colliding with Jupiter, providing the world with the first direct observation of a collision of solar system objects. The discovery was profound in that it suggested this would occur, as well as providing new information about Jupiter, and its role in reducing space debris in the inner solar system.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">__ References __ <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> 1.http:  // [|__www.cnn.com/books/dialogue/9805/levy.chat/index.html__] // //<span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 18px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">2.http: // [|__www.wordiq.com/definition/Comet_Shoemaker-Levy_9__] <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> 3.http:// [|__www.wordiq.com/definition/David_Levy_%28astronomer%29__] <span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 18px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">4.http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/educators/resources/astronomy/module7/astronomers.asp#5 <span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 18px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">5.http://media.www.campusvoiceonline.com/media/storage/paper1364/news/2009/10/27/News/David.Levy.Astronomy.Celebrity.Talks.About.Life.Experiences.And.Passions.With.Ke- 3812861.shtml <span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 18px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">6.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker-Levy_9 <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 18px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px;">7. __[]__