JEFF CAPLAN'S MY MINUTE OF NEWS
Jeff Caplan’s Minute of News: Earth used to have a ring?!?
Sep 24, 2024, 7:00 AM
A New York Times report claims that this planet had a ring like Saturn. (Canva)
(Canva)
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SALT LAKE CITY — There’s a scientist in Australia who’s just published a paper that theorizes, much like Saturn, Earth once had a ring around its equator.
Dr. Andy Thompkins points out that the Earth has a lot of pockmarks at the equator, all the way around the globe. These divots date back 466 million years. Give or take.
The only way they could have been evenly distributed around the globe is if Earth was encircled by a ring made of little rocks and ice. Something caused all the little shards in this ring to fall from the sky and dented the surface, like a dotted line along the equator.
Imagine it. You’d look up at this spellbinding sight. A shimmering ring arcing overhead from horizon to horizon like a sparkling rainbow. Except you wouldn’t see it. Around 500 million years ago there were no humans. No mammals at all. Earth was populated by sponges and protozoa. Things you see in a microscope. And they were all underwater, which covered most of the planet.
Where you now sit in your car was ocean filled with slithering little cells. If you could see the glittery ring of rocks, it would have left you breathless. Because Earth had less oxygen then.
This planet was just beginning to tank up on breathable air that would let life begin on land, but by the time mammals got here the ring was long gone. A ring, that according to Dr. Thompkins, stayed a secret for half a billion years.
Jeff Caplan is the host of Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News on KSL NewsRadio. Follow him on Facebook and X.
