SwRI, UCSC researchers identify the Moon-forming impact
Below are results of a lunar-forming impact simulation from Canup and Asphaug 2001. The smaller, impacting object is Mars-sized and impacts the Earth obliquely in a counter-clockwise sense. Most of the impacting object eventually ends up on the Earth, but some fraction of it remains dispersed in a cloud of debris orbiting the planet. Color in the simulation is representative of the degree to which the planetary rock has been heated by the impact. The entire impact sequence covers about 24 hours of simulated time. At the end of the impact, the central Earth has a rotational day of only about 5 hours.
In the figure, individual time frames are shown looking down onto the plane of the impact; the last frame is the final system viewed on edge, with a cooler (blues/greens) disk of material orbiting in the Earth’s equatorial plane surrounded by a hot cloud of material (oranges/red). In the animation, the view is looking down onto the equatorial plane of the impact.
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©2001 Southwest Research Institute
These images may be used by the public and the media for educational and informational purposes only. Credit to Southwest Research Institute should be given.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0076643.
