First Impact

First Impact is the great meteorite impact which occurred 4 billion years ago, causing the Moon to split from the Earth.

The true cause of First Impact is that the "Black Moon" transport vessel created by the First Ancestral Race for the Seed of Life Lilith collided with Earth, not a meteorite.

This event was retroactively dubbed "First Impact" in opposition to the later "Second Impact", which according to the public cover story was also a massive meteorite impact.

First Impact was never depicted or directly referred to on-screen. This has led several fans upon first glance assume that because the "Second Impact" was supposedly a meteorite collision, the "First Impact" was thus the famous asteroid impact with caused the mass-extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. However, the collision of Lilith's Black Moon with Earth actually occurred far earlier, some four billion years ago.

Notes

• The real-life giant impact theory states that during the early formation of the solar system, a Mars-sized planetoid codenamed "Theia" collided with proto-Earth as it was still forming. The ejected material from the collision coalesced due to gravity, and was caught in Earth orbit, becoming the Moon.
• A recurring visual motif throughout the series pairs Rei Ayanami with the Moon. Rei's body is a "vessel" for the soul of Lilith, so in a sense, she actually created the Moon.