Experts estimate that the Earth once had a ring system like Saturn 466 million years ago. This opinion was expressed in a recent study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Earth has rings after capturing and destroying a passing SHIOWLA. Quoted from the Live Science page on Friday (20/09/2024), this ring of asteroid debris is likely to last for tens of millions of years.

This phenomenon is thought to have caused the earth's temperature to cool. It even contributed to the coldest period on Earth in the last 500 million years.

According to the latest analysis, there are 21 crater locations around the world that are thought to have been formed by debris from a large asteroid that fell between 488 million and 443 million years ago. This period was an era in Earth's history known as the Ordovician, when our planet experienced a dramatic increase in asteroid impacts.

The research team led by Andy Tomkins, professor of planetary science at Monash University in Australia, used computer models to map how our planet's tectonic plates moved in the past to map the locations of craters when they first formed more than 400 million years ago. The researchers found that all of the craters formed on continents floating within 30 degrees of the equator.

This suggests that the crater was formed by falling debris from a large asteroid that broke apart after nearly hitting Earth. The series of crater locations, all of which are around the equator, correspond to the rings of debris orbiting the Earth.

Planetary Equator

Such planetary rings usually form above the planet's equator, as do the rings around Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The new study's findings say the chance that this impact site was formed by a random, unrelated asteroid impact is about 1 in 25 million.

The researchers estimate that the asteroid forming the ring would be about 12.5 km wide if it were a pile of debris, or slightly smaller if it were a solid object. Once it disintegrated after approaching Earth, Tomkins said, the fragments crammed together before settling into a ring of debris orbiting Earth's equator.

The research team discovered that these fragments represent a specific type of meteorite and are found in abundance in limestone deposits throughout Europe, Russia and China. These asteroids have been exposed to far less space radiation than today's falling meteorites.

The deposits also reveal signs of several tsunamis during the Ordovician period. This phenomenon can be well explained by the collision and breakup scenario of a passing large asteroid.

Searching for common signatures on specific asteroid grains across newly studied impact craters will help test that hypothesis. According to the new research, if the Earth had rings like Saturn around its equator, the rings would significantly affect our planet's climate.

This is because the Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbit around the sun. The rings will cast shadows on parts of our planet's surface that may cause global cooling.

Researchers speculate that the event may have caused a dramatic cooling of our planet 465 million years ago. This led to the coldest period in the last half billion years, known as the Hirnantian Ice Age.

This research led by Tomkins opens up discourse about the possible impact of astronomy on extinction events on Earth. However, further research is still needed to test this hypothesis with certainty.