Did Earth Have Rings?

Earth may once have had rings, like Saturn – and all the more distant planets of our solar system. Saturn’s are just the most visible, and therefore the most famous.

Rings are made of debris – from asteroids, moons, or from the formation of the planets themselves.

Scientists think the rings around Saturn are the remains of one of its moons that was torn apart by the giant planet’s gravity.

They think the rings around Jupiter are likely dust from micrometeor impacts with its moons.

New findings suggest that Earth may once have had rings too, around 460 million years ago.

Scientists found a ring of meteorite impact craters that date to this period, circling Earth’s equator.

They theorized that an asteroid passed too close to Earth, was trapped then broken up by gravity. The debris scattered into a ring, which eventually fell to Earth around the equator.

Rings around Earth may also have formed our moon.

The leading hypothesis of the moon’s formation has been that a single large asteroid or other planet crashed into Earth and knocked off a chunk that became the moon, as described on another EarthDate.

A new hypothesis is that multiple large collisions produced debris rings, which coalesced into moonlets. As these drifted farther from Earth, they merged into a single moon.

Or it could be something else entirely. It’s amazing how much we still don’t know about the moon and our planet itself.