By Rick Adams
18, Sep 2024
It appears planet Earth could have had its own ring of space rocks in the past similar to those surrounding Saturn, which, as new research indicates, could have caused intense meteorite impacts on the Earth’s surface.
It is postulated that the ring may have been formed about 466 million years ago and was the debris of a huge asteroid that was torn apart by Earth’s tidal forces when the latter got within the Roche limit of the asteroid.
Stern may have branded the darkened disc across Earth’s equator, which may have caused a global cooling effect by shielding the planet from sunlight while causing meteoritic bombardment on the surface of the planet.
In this publication, the researchers conveyed their analysis available Sept. 16 in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
“Some of these rings ejected material over millions of years and the material fell onto the Earth, which has been observed in the geological record of meteorite impacts,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Andy Tomkins, professor of planetary science at Monash University, Australia, said.
We also observe that individual layers in sedimentary rocks of this age pack unusually large amounts of meteorite particles.’
The authors came to the rather shocking conclusion using information on one of the epochs in the development of the Earth—the Ordovician (485 million years ago–443 million years ago).
The Ordovician was a volatile time in the geologic calendar of the Earth—it was the second most chilling time period in the last half a billion years and experienced an increase in meteor impact on Earth.