The Role of Giant Impacts in Planet Formation, Supplemental Video 5: Two planets undergoing a graze-and-merge giant impact

Visualization of two planets undergoing a graze-and-merge style giant impact, based on computer simulation output. This style of collision has been widely theorized for the formation of the Moon. The larger (target) body is one tenth the mass of the Earth and the smaller (impactor) body is 70% the mass of the target. The planets are colliding at 1.10 times their mutual escape velocity, which equates to 3.69 km/s. The collision angle, defined by the angle between the velocity vector at impact and the line of their centers of mass, is 45°.

Variables: The top-left panel shows mantle and core materials as unique colors for the target and impactor. The top-right panel shows the density of material in kilograms per cubic meter. The bottom-left panel shows temperature in thousands of Kelvins. The bottom right panel shows pressure in Pascals.

Software: Simulation run by T.S.J. Gabriel ([email protected]) using SPLATCH, a planetary Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics code developed at the University of Bern by (Reufer 2011), maintained by A. Emsenhuber (Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich; [email protected]) and H. Ballantyne (University of Bern; [email protected]).

Citation: Gabriel & Cambioni (2023). The Role of Giant Impacts in Planet Formation, Annual Reviews.