Introduction

Moon forming impact is a major event in the history of the Solar System that provides important insights into the Earth-moon system and on a broad scale, evolution of the solar system. Lunar exploration has been one of the high priorities since it is the closest planetary body. However the details of the processes that formed this lone satellite of the Earth remain unclear. As a result, understanding geochemical and dynamic processes that were the results of the moon forming impact and their effect on the evolution of the Earth-Moon system is one of the highest priorities for planetary science.

Formation of Moon is such a fundamental research theme that is the central subject of this research project. Lunar samples returned from the Apollo program changed our understanding of Moon formation drastically. The primary results from the geochemical analysis of these samples suggest that Moon has lower density than Earth and other rocky planets of its size range. There is a compositional similarity between the Earth and the Moon. Tungsten isotopic system suggests that the Moon formed at least 30 Ma later that the Earth (Touboul et al 2007). As a result, formation of the moon by an impact of a giant Mars sized object is a widely accepted current hypothesis by the scientific community. However the details of this event remain unclear. Simulation of the Moon forming impact and aftermath is a efficient way to understand these details. In this project we attempt to simulate the proto-lunar disk after the Moon forming impact to develop understanding of mixing of impactor mass with the Earth material and volatile transport. The results from this project will provide important constraints on the composition of the impactor and significant insights into the degree of mixing and transport of volatiles.

The result from this project will provide answers to questions, what was the degree of mixing between the Earth material with the impactor in the proto-lunar disk? And what processes led to depletion of volatiles in the proto-lunar disk? This project proposes to provide significant insights into the formation of moon and evolution of Earth-Moon system.