Protoplanet collision afterglows

3D ModelNoAI

Planets form in circumstellar disks that orbit around young forming stars. During the final stages of their formation, protoplanets can migrate within their circumstellar disk and, occasionally, crash into other protoplanets. The model presents an artist impression of one of this giant collisions. One of the hypothesis for the origin of our Moon suggests a gigantic impact between a Mars-size object and the proto-Earth. A ring of debris most likely formed as a result of the collision which eventually formed a single natural satellite, the Moon. In the aftermath of collisions between planets, the surviving protoplanet is covered with an ocean of magma, a mixture of fused silicates and volatile substances. The sequence of multiple impacts and collisions with other planetary objects gradually set the stage for the early surface environment and atmospheric properties of a newly formed planet. This is probably how our planet formed and developed the conditions to sustain life.