A weird number of craters are located close to the equator, and the odds that this is random are incredibly low, researchers say.

C ould Earth once have had a planetary ring like the ones around Saturn? Scientists from Monash University in Australia think so. In a recent paper they identify 450m-year-old craters that lie close to Earth’s historical equator.

Earth may have had a Saturn-like ring system long ago, created from the debris of a passing asteroid that our planet tore apart.

If astronomers had been walking the Earth 466 million years ago, they may have had something special to see. The moon and the planets and the stars and the sun would have looked pretty much the same as they do today.

During a tumultuous period for our planet around 466 million years ago, Earth was pelted with meteorites and rocked by tsunamis. But geologists have uncovered some strange things about this moment in history.

And now, a new study published in the scientific journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters seems to show that Earth itself once had a similar ring. The new study asserts that Earth's ring formed around 466 million years ago and stuck around for around 40 million years before dissipating.

Evidence suggests Earth had a ring system 466 million years ago, causing a surge in meteorite impacts and possibly influencing the planet's climate.