Formation of the prelunar accretion disk

According to the single-impact hypothesis for forming the Moon, the angular momentum needed for the present Earth-Moon system can be imparted to the proto-Earth by a collision with a body having one-tenth of the mass or more. The collision must vaporize a large amount of rock which must stay in the form of vapor after expanding in density by a factor of several, so that pressure gradients can accelerate significant amounts of the matter into orbital motion about the proto-Earth. A successful theory must put considerably more than a lunar mass into orbit, having considerably more angular momentum than is needed to assemble a lunar mass in orbit at 3 Earth radii. Such a collision has been simulated by a particular form of a particle-in-cell representation of hydrodynamics and 78 cases have been run representing variations in a variety of parameters. A significant fraction of the cases were successful in creating a satisfactory prelunar accretion disk. A fairly common characteristic of these cases was the presence of an excess velocity in the collision (above that of a parabolic orbit), implying that the projectile involved in the collision existed in an Earth-crossing orbit of significant ellipticity. A majority of the mass of the prelunar accretion disk is contributed by the projectile.