Author: Andrew Tomkins, Geologist, Monash University

The rings of Saturn are some of the most famous and spectacular objects in the Solar System. Earth may once have had something similar. In a paper published last week in Earth & Planetary Science Letters, my colleagues and I present evidence that Earth may have had a ring. The existence of such a ring, forming around 466 million years ago and persisting for a few tens of millions of years, could explain several puzzles in our planet’s past. The case for a ringed Earth Around 466 million years ago, a lot of meteorites started hitting Earth. We know this…