NEW EVIDENCE: Earth Had Rings (and Might Regain Them)

Planet Earth is the jewel of the solar system—the shimmery blue oceans, the verdant green forests, the wispy whimsical cloud formations. Saturn is the only competitor for most gorgeous planet with that giant ring system. Hmm… what if we could put the jewel of the Earth in its own ring? Then no contest. Well, there’s an extremely good chance that Earth once DID have a ring system. At least, that’s the proposal by a recent study that has evidence that a mysterious burst in meteor activity nearly half a billion years ago was actually caused by that ancient ring system collapsing onto the Earth. And, you know, if we had a ring once maybe we can have one again.

Check Out Joe Scott’s: What Would Happen If The Earth Had Rings?

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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Richard Dyer & Matt O'Dowd
Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour
Executive Producer: Andrew Kornhaber
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell

Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios.
This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content.
© 2024 PBS. All rights reserved.

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00:00 Introduction
00:38 Channel Announcements
01:21 New Community Format + Patreon
02:35 Main Hypothesis
04:20 Lunar Debris Theory
07:15 Asteroid Impact Theory
10:35 Ring Lifespan & Dissappearance
14:46 Final Thoughts and Future Questions

[timmcdaniel]

It seems appropriate that an episode calling for engagement is about rings.

[markuskrypton]

And in terms of beauty, the Marble Jupiter should not be forgotten.

[LyssahVanBaalen]

I've been fascinated with Saturn since i was little. Now I'll be dreaming of a ringed beautiful earth tonight.

[dreamingpixles]

I absolutely love how they supported this hypothesis. Finding crater impacts all around the world and mapping them on a continent from millions of years ago, all to demonstrate that earth may once have had gorgeous rings - it appeals to the Romantic.

[alexenderle]

I love that PBS Spacetime breaks down complex topics without oversimplifying them. It presents a nice middle ground between Kurzsegat and getting a Ph.D in Astrophysics.

[adriansolis]

showing the impact zones after shifting the plates back in time was super satisfying even though I knew we were headed there.

[crazedpostdoc]

Just want to point out that, during the period of Earths history where meteors were falling like crazy, sharks were already doing their thing for 10s of millions of years and have continuously been doing their thing since.

[nuneke]

Put a ring on Earth!
She's a keeper!

[Septicaemic_]

Joe's video on a ringed Earth was a lot of fun. He went into a lot of detail with the idea

[Feanor]

I've learnt so much from this channel over the years, thanks PBS Space Time

[prrgu]

For my comment I just wanna say that I love listening to scientists talking about their work so I am glad to hear y'all are implementing interviews!

[Linkfan]

Fun Fact: the final boss music of Kirby and the Forgotten Land is called Two Planets Approach the Roche Limit. You can take a guess as to what the final boss is like from there.

[Duck_Bug]

This is without hyperbole, the best show on earth... erhm I mean in spacetime. Keep it up Matt!

[toughenupfluffy]

Imagine sunsets, with the rings glowing from the light of the sun for hours afterwards.
And sunrises, waking you up long before you ever want to.

[davidmerewether]

I like the light hearted silver lining description of a cataclysmic event to get our rings back.

[cdanhowell]

Humanity is busy rebuilding Earths rings with satellite and starship debris as we speak 😂

[dustinleebladesmith]

I love the idea that a velociraptor with a telescope could have seen the collisions that led to the rings of Saturn xD

[jw]

thank you Matt O'Dowd for still making these.

[Nagria]

LONG LIVE PBS spacetime <3 i never want to miss this show

[niklas]

Imagine leaving your house, looking up and seeing faint rings stretch across the whole sky 🤩