Moon formation - the standard giant impact model

This is a numerical simulation based on the standard giant impact model (Hartmann and Davis 1975; Cameron and Ward 1976). A mars-size impactor hit the Earth, which created a debris disk around the planet. The Moon formed from the disk. Color scales with the entropy of forsterite in J/K/kg. This work has been done by Nakajima, M. and Stevenson D.J. at Caltech. (related publication; http://arxiv.org/abs/1401.3036 )