The leading theory for the origin of the Moon suggests that a planetary impactor struck the proto-Earth in an oblique collision shortly after the formation of the solar system. The giant impact produces liquid and vapor debris, drawn from the proto-Earth and impactor. The debris either escapes the system, falls back to Earth, or enters circumterrestrial orbits forming a "protolunar disk." In this defense, I will highlight a suite of numerical models using the Athena++ astrophysical magnetohydrodynamics framework that investigates (1) the dynamical role of magnetic fields in a Moon-forming giant impact scenario and (2) the early evolution of the protolunar disk. Our models demonstrate that magnetic fields speed the evolution of the vapor component of the protolunar disk, while making Moon formation less efficient.
