Earth May Have Had Rings 466 Million Years Ago

New research suggests an ancient ring system could explain unusual meteorite impacts and climate changes during the Ordovician period.

A team of researchers proposes that Earth had a ring system formed from a near-miss with a large asteroid around 466 million years ago.
This hypothesis is based on the unusual distribution of 21 impact craters located within 30 degrees of the equator.
The debris from the asteroid, once within Earth's Roche limit, likely formed a ring that gradually fell to Earth, causing the observed spike in meteorite impacts.
Layers in sedimentary rocks from this period contain significant amounts of meteorite debris, supporting the ring system theory.
The potential shadow cast by this ring may have contributed to the Hirnantian Icehouse, a major global cooling event linked to a mass extinction.