New Research Suggests Earth May Have Had A Ring System Similar To Saturn About 466 Million Years Ago
Saturn is known for its dazzling ring system, which is the most complex of all the planets in our solar system. The rings are made of ice and rock and can even be seen through a small telescope. A new study suggests that Earth may have had a similar ring system in its past, specifically 466 million years ago.
The ring would have lasted for 20 to 40 million years and was thought to have been created from the debris of a passing asteroid that was destroyed. The ring may have contributed to the coldest period on Earth, which occurred within the past 500 million years.
Between 488 million and 443 million years ago, falling debris from a large asteroid created 21 crater sites around the world. This era was part of the Ordovician period, when the rate of asteroid impacts on Earth saw a dramatic increase. Researchers analyzed these craters to prove our planet once had a ring.
A team led by Andy Tomkins, a professor of planetary science at Monash University in Australia, used computer models to map out the initial locations of the craters over 400 million years ago.
It turned out that all the craters formed on continents that floated within 30 degrees of the equator, suggesting they were created by falling debris from the same asteroid. The large asteroid broke up before it could strike the Earth at full force.
“Under normal circumstances, asteroids hitting Earth can hit at any latitude, at random, as we see in craters on the moon, Mars, and Mercury,” Tomkins stated. “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.”
The chances that the impact sites were the result of random asteroid strikes was about one in 25 million.
According to the scientists, the crater locations lining the equator are consistent with a debris ring orbiting Earth. Such rings tend to form above planets’ equators, as can be seen in Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune.
It is estimated that the asteroid would have been roughly 7.7 miles wide or slightly smaller. Once it broke up, the pieces would have floated around until they settled into a ring of debris orbiting Earth’s equator.
dimazel – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
“Over millions of years, material from this ring gradually fell to Earth, creating the spike in meteorite impacts observed in the geological record,” Tomkins said.
“We also see that layers in sedimentary rocks from this period contain extraordinary amounts of meteorite debris.”
The team discovered that the debris was common in limestone deposits across Europe, Russia, and China. They were exposed to much less space radiation than meteorites that fall to Earth today.
The deposits also revealed signs of several tsunamis that occurred during the Ordovician period. They are best explained by a large, passing asteroid that broke up.
The team does not have enough evidence to confirm that Earth had rings. If Earth did have a ring, it would have greatly affected the climate by casting a shadow over parts of the planet’s surface, leading to global cooling.
The research has been published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
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