Nature, Vol.389, No.6649, 353-357, 1997
Lunar Accretion from an Impact-Generated Disk
Although the mechanism by which the Moon was formed is currently unknown, several lines of evidence point to its accretion from a circumterrestrial disk of debris generated by a giant impact on the Earth. Theoretical simulations show that a single large moon can be produced from such a disk in less than a year, and establish a direct relationship between the size of the accreted moon and the initial configuration of the debris disk.