2 HN users recommended this demo1 month2023–2024score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN commenters link it as a cool visualization whenever Theia and Moon formation come up.
A NASA and Durham University supercomputer simulation suggesting the Moon may have formed within hours of a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body. It is one of the highest-resolution giant-impact simulations run.
“the simulation released last year of the hypothesized Earth-Theia moon formation is really cool” (HN, 2023)
It's not my area, but this video looks interesting and is produced by NASA " New Supercomputer Simulation Sheds Light on Moon’s Origin " (October 2022) [this video]
NASA supercomputer simulation about the Moon's origin
How does this finding compare with those from this simulated video of the moon forming? "Collision May Have Formed the Moon in Mere Hours, Simulations Reveal" [link] [this video] And this, from the moon: "Scientists discover huge, heat-emitting blob on the far side of the moon" (2023) [link] "Remote detection of a lunar granitic batholith at Compton–Belkovich" [from a dormant volcano] (2023) [link]
What I want to see is the Theia collision rendered in realistic 3D (and if there was enough gas around for sound to carry, that too!) [link] I guess this is close but not like the Hollywood blockbuster it should be [this video] [link]
Close to a realistic Theia collision render, though not blockbuster quality
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
5 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.
Citations, criticism and jokes