A ring of asteroid debris could have orbited Earth for tens of millions of years, and perhaps even have altered the planet’s climate
By James Woodford
17 September 2024 Last updated 19 September 2024
What Earth may have looked like with a ring
Oliver Hull
After a near miss with an asteroid 466 million years ago, Earth may have developed a Saturn-like ring of debris that lasted for tens of millions of years – and may have significantly affected the planet’s climate.
That is according to Andy Tomkins and his colleagues at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, who have identified 21 crater sites around the world that were created by falling meteorites, during a period known as the Ordovician impact spike 466 million years ago. The team say that these crater sites were the result of larger objects in a previously unidentified ring being pulled out of orbit and crashing into Earth.
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Taking into account the movement of the continents due to plate tectonics, the team says that, at that time, all the sites would have been located close to the equator. This is consistent with a ring because these typically form above the equators of planets, the researchers say.
The team also relied on previous research having identified a consistent meteorite signature in a number of limestone deposits, also from that time and also once close to the equator.
Tomkins says the team has calculated that the likelihood of all these crater sites being positioned close to the equator if they were the result of unrelated, random impacts is just 1 in 25 million.