NASA's Ames Research Center
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2023–2024
1:51 · 12M views · Oct 4, 2022
A NASA and Durham University supercomputer simulation suggesting the Moon may have formed within hours of a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body. It is one of the highest-resolution giant-impact simulations run.
HN commenters link it as a cool visualization whenever Theia and Moon formation come up.
5 comments from Hacker News
It's not my area, but this video looks interesting and is produced by NASA " New Supercomputer Simulation Sheds Light on Moon’s Origin " (October 2022) this video
If you haven't seen it yet, the simulation released last year of the hypothesized Earth-Theia moon formation is really cool: this video
How does this finding compare with those from this simulated video of the moon forming? "Collision May Have Formed the Moon in Mere Hours, Simulations Reveal" [LINK] this video And this, from the moon: "Scientists discover huge, heat-emitting blob on the far side of the moon" (2023) [LINK] "Remote detection of a lunar granitic batholith at Compton–Belkovich" [from a dormant volcano] (2023) [LINK]
What I want to see is the Theia collision rendered in realistic 3D (and if there was enough gas around for sound to carry, that too!) [LINK] I guess this is close but not like the Hollywood blockbuster it should be this video [LINK]
The simulation gives some insight, the debris was fed back by gravity in a swirl this video And always a great PBS Space Time on the subject [LINK]