Science Earth might have had a ring during the Ordovician

[jedidia]

Quite a fascinating article:

Earth may have had a ring system 466 million years ago

In a discovery that challenges our understanding of Earth's ancient history, researchers have found evidence suggesting that Earth may have had a ring system that formed around 466 million years ago, at the beginning of a period of unusually intense meteorite bombardment known as the Ordovician...

phys.org

Basically, the impacts from the Ordovician impact spike are not distributed randomly enough and suggest the impactors came from a common orbit. One reasonable explanation is a ring system created by an asteroid breaking apart during a close pass. They speculate that the closely following cold period might also be related to ring shadow.

 

[MarkWatney2015]

Just approximately 16 million years before the Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction.....could the fallout of this ring might've triggered it?

 

[MaxBuzz]

Earth's rings still exist today, but they are discharged
The Earth is surrounded by several rings, tilted differently to the plane of the equator and consisting of tiny, and therefore invisible, dust particles.

It was first recorded in 1966 by the first artificial satellite of the Moon, the Soviet automatic station Luna-10. Reprocessing of the data obtained at that time confirmed that the dust formation around the Moon has a structure similar to that of the Earth.

In 1964, the Soviet Union launched the Electron satellites into elongated Hellenic orbits. Two of them, Electron-1 and Electron-3, were equipped with meteor particle recorders. The results of the first measurements indicated the constant presence of a fairly large dust formation near the Earth. However, this information was not given due attention at the time.

Кольца земли

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

Earth's rings still exist today, but they are discharged
The Earth is surrounded by several rings, tilted differently to the plane of the equator and consisting of tiny, and therefore invisible, dust particles.

It was first recorded in 1966 by the first artificial satellite of the Moon, the Soviet automatic station Luna-10. Reprocessing of the data obtained at that time confirmed that the dust formation around the Moon has a structure similar to that of the Earth.

In 1964, the Soviet Union launched the Electron satellites into elongated Hellenic orbits. Two of them, Electron-1 and Electron-3, were equipped with meteor particle recorders. The results of the first measurements indicated the constant presence of a fairly large dust formation near the Earth. However, this information was not given due attention at the time.

Кольца земли

Earth has no rings. There might be very few tiny dust particles, but it's not a ring or even a ring system.

Facts About Earth - NASA Science

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the fifth largest planet. It's the only place we know of inhabited by living things.

science.nasa.gov

 

[MaxBuzz]

Earth has no rings. There might be very few tiny dust particles, but it's not a ring or even a ring system.

This puts Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in an awkward position

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/141338

 

[MarkWatney2015]

This puts Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in an awkward position

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/141338

This one's most likely artificial as the paper said it was detected at an altitude of 600 km

 

[MaxBuzz]

This one's most likely artificial as the paper said it was detected at an altitude of 600 km

geodetic satellite GEOS-2 confirmed the picture, adding interesting details. It became clear that dust rings are located around the Earth at an altitude of 400 to 235 thousand kilometers. At the same time, the number of meteor particles noticeably decreases with distance from the planet's surface.

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

A few dust particles, especially artificial, are not a ring or ring system. Earth does not have a ring system, like Saturn. It would restrict our access to space significantly. Maybe the Earth had a ring system in the past. But not today.

One should not rely on old and outdated sources and data too much. Science and scientific discoveries and conclusions change and progress fast.

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

This one's most likely artificial as the paper said it was detected at an altitude of 600 km

Yeah. MMOD (Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris) are quite common in Earth orbit. And orbital debris are artificial by nature. Hasn't anything to do with a ring system anyway.

 

[MaxBuzz]

One should not rely on old and outdated sources and data too much. Science and scientific discoveries and conclusions change and progress fast.

Yes, it was only in 2018 that they were able to confirm the presence of a planet-sized dust cloud at an altitude of 400,000 km

Celestial mechanics and polarization optics of the Kordylewski dust cloud in the Earth–Moon Lagrange point L5 – I. Three-dimensional celestial mechanical modelling of dust cloud formation

ABSTRACT. Since the discovery in 1772 of the triangular Lagrange points L4 and L5 in the gravitational field of two bodies moving under the sole influence

academic.oup.com

 

[MarkWatney2015]

Yes, it was only in 2018 that they were able to confirm the presence of a planet-sized dust cloud at an altitude of 400,000 kml

Those were Kordylewski Clouds, they're very different from actual rings

 

[MaxBuzz]

even the moon has a ring
"During the space missions of the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft to the Moon, it was observed that sunlight is scattered in the terminator region, which in turn leads to the formation of lunar dawns and streamers above the surface (despite the absence of an atmosphere). Light scattering most likely occurs on charged dust particles, the source of which is the surface of the Moon. Indirect evidence of the existence of a lunar plasma-dust cloud was also obtained during the Soviet expeditions Luna-19 and Luna-22."

Lopsided Cloud of Dust Discovered Around the Moon

Passing comets kick up the dust, new data suggest, deepening a mystery posed by the first lunar astronauts.

www.nationalgeographic.com

 

[N_Molson]

It depends what you define by 'ring'. Aside that all gravitational bodies tend to capture debris, yes.

According to Britannica :

'Planetary ring, a disklike aggregation of particles and larger objects that orbit a planet’s equator.'

 

[MaxBuzz]

Just approximately 16 million years before the Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction.....could the fallout of this ring might've triggered it?

Sturtian glaciation (or several successive glaciations) that occurred in the first half of the Cryogenian period. Dates vary: either 717-643 million years ago, or 715-680 million years ago.

on the other hand, at the end of the period, the Ediacaran biota was formed - organisms that can be considered animals

 

[MaxBuzz]

Cryogenian period earth with rings (I generated it in a neural network)

 

[jedidia]

(I generated it in a neural network)

And, true to form, it can't draw it because the only planets with rings it knows are gas giants. Image-generating AI keeps being hilariously incompetent...

 

[N_Molson]

Yeah, let's keep """IA""" out of this

 

[Boxx]

(IMHO, AI was only used to illustrate, not to prove anything, of course).

Well, as far as I understand and remember recent and on-going studies, ring systems is a same and general rule for planets... and stars, and consequently for moons formation and displacement. We even look at moons of moons nowadays... The Saturnian system is considered as a generic lab of what could likely happen everywhere around stars, planets, and even moons, so why not around the Earth and the Moon as well, some millions or billions of years ago. (Nevertheless, not telling that the Moon was created from a ring system, its creation is another story.)

 

[Urwumpe]

I am still very skeptical what AI can do and does, especially its high power consumption for tasks, that we can do on a Döner. But: For tasks that I don't like to do and don't want to spent too much time of my life on, its pretty useful.

 

[n72.75]

Direct link to paper.