Long Ago, Earth Could Have Sported Saturn-Like Rings, Study Says

Earth may have had rings around it millions of years ago, a new study says. The rings, or ring, could have looked like the bright rings that mark the planet Saturn. 

Roughly 466 million years ago, debris pelted the Earth’s surface. That's according to a research team. The team found 21 large craters formed during a period called the Ordivician era. 

A study of those craters shows that they formed in a pattern near Earth’s equator. The clustered landing zone around the equator is key to the theory. Experts believe the debris may have been caught in a ring around the Earth and then tossed to the surface. If not, one would expect the craters to be scattered around the globe.    

“Asteroids hitting Earth can hit at any latitude,” Andy Tomkins wrote on The Conversation website. He teaches planetary science at Monash University in Australia. He points out that craters on the moon, Mercury, and Mars appear random. “So it's extremely unlikely that all 21 craters from this period would form close to the equator if they were unrelated to one another.”  

Tomkins wrote that the experts now believe that a large asteroid must have broken up during a close call with Earth. That could have sent debris from the rings crashing down to Earth.  

Not all experts agree with the study’s conclusion. The study is a “new and creative idea,” Birger Schmitz told New Scientist. He's a professor at Lund University in Sweden. He said the theory "explains some observations." But the data is not enough to conclude the Earth had rings, he said.     

Reflect: Why do you think it’s important to study our planet’s history?

Gif of Earth spinning from GIPHY.