Over five decades ago, Apollo astronauts brought back to Earth a wide variety of rocks from the Moon. Analysis of these rocks gave rise to a set of ideas describing the origin of the Moon called the Giant Impact Theory. In the last decade, scientists like Robin Canup have been testing a number of predictions of this theory using a new generation of powerful supercomputers.

In this video, Dr. Canup showcases her recent results. The visualization is a work in progress produced for the upcoming giant screen fulldome film “Birth of Planet,” with funding from the National Science Foundation.