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    "story_id": "mp-2026-08-06-014",
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    "headline": "The Moon-Making Debris Could Not Stay Put",
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    "dek": "Simulations found stellar tides and high impact speeds can strip or prevent the disks needed to assemble large moons close to a star.",
    "summary": "Simulations found stellar tides and high impact speeds can strip or prevent the disks needed to assemble large moons close to a star.",
    "body_text": "Simulations of giant impacts around close-in planets identify a bottleneck for forming large exomoons. At ultra-short orbital periods, impacts produced almost no bound debris disk; around ten-day periods, stellar tides truncated and depleted disks, while higher encounter speeds made outcomes more destructive. Retrograde impacts partly offset the loss in some cases. The preprint models formation conditions and does not report an observed exomoon.",
    "why_it_matters": "Simulations found stellar tides and high impact speeds can strip or prevent the disks needed to assemble large moons close to a star.",
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      "The preprint models formation conditions and does not report an observed exomoon."
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    "first_published_at": "2026-08-06T09:00:00.000-04:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-08-06T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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        "text": "Simulations found stellar tides and high impact speeds can strip or prevent the disks needed to assemble large moons close to a star.",
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        "qualification": "The preprint models formation conditions and does not report an observed exomoon."
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    "tags": [
      "exomoons",
      "planet formation",
      "simulations"
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    "corrections": []
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  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-08-06-014",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2608.04512",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
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    "title": "The Moon-Making Debris Could Not Stay Put",
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    "published_at": "2026-08-06T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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