title: Lunar-forming impacts: processes and alternatives.
abstract: The formation of a protolunar disc by a giant impact with the early Earth is discussed, focusing on two classes of impacts: (i) canonical impacts, in which a Mars-sized impactor produces a planet-disc system whose angular momentum is comparable to that in the current Earth and Moon, and (ii) high-angular-momentum impacts, which produce a system whose angular momentum is approximately a factor of 2 larger than that in the current Earth and Moon. In (i), the disc originates primarily from impactor-derived material and thus is expected to have an initial composition distinct from that of the Earth's mantle. In (ii), a hotter, more compact initial disc is produced with a silicate composition that can be nearly identical to that of the silicate Earth. Both scenarios require subsequent processes for consistency with the current Earth and Moon: disc-planet compositional equilibration in the case of (i), or large-scale angular momentum loss during capture of the newly formed Moon into the evection resonance with the Sun in the case of (ii).
authors.affiliation: Southwest Research Institute, Planetary Science Directorate, 1050 Walnut St., Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302, USA robin@boulder.swri.edu.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Canup
keywords: Moon; impacts; satellite origin
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