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

Check Out All PBS Earth Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnNZYWyBGJ1F8ofFm4H9UTrHxqU8zngK4 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? Sign Up on Patreon to get access to this Month’s Livestream Interview with Dr. Matt Caplan! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ 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. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka Space Time Was Made Possible In Part By: Big Bang Tj Steyn Bryce Fort Peter Barrett Alexander Tamas Morgan Hough Juan Benet Vinnie Falco Mark Rosenthal Supernova Grace Biaelcki Glenn Sugden Ethan Cohen Stephen Wilcox Robert Ilardi The Tyacke boys Mark Heising Hypernova Ulrich and Alexandre Francois Spencer Jones Dean Galvin Michael Tidwell Stephen Spidle Massimiliano Pala Justin Lloyd David Giltinan Kenneth See Gregory Forfa Alex Kern D. Rollere Scott Gorlick Paul Stehr-Green Ben Delo Scott Gray Антон Кочков John R. Slavik Donal Botkin chuck zegar Daniel Muzquiz Gamma Ray Burst Rick Magnun Bryan White Eric Raschke Aaron Pinto Kacper Cieśla Satwik Pani Param Saxena John De Witt Nathaniel Bennett Sandhya Devi Michael Oulvey Arko Provo Mukherjee Mike Purvis Christopher Wade Anthony Crossland Stephen Saslow Robert DeChellis Tomaz Lovsin Anthony Leon Nick Hoffenstoffer III Lori Ferris Koen Wilde Nicolas Katsantonis Richard Steenbergen Joe Pavlovic Chuck Lukaszewski Cole B Combs Jerry Thomas Nikhil Sharma John Anderson Bradley Ulis Craig Falls Kane Holbrook Ross Story Harsh Khandhadia Matt Quinn Michael Lev Rad Antonov Terje Vold James Trimmier Jeremy Soller Paul Wood Kent Durham Jim Bartosh John H. Austin, Jr. Diana S Poljar Faraz Khan Almog Cohen Daniel Jennings David Johnston Michael Barton Isaac Suttell Bleys Goodson Mark Delagasse Mark Daniel Cohen Shane Calimlim Tybie Fitzhugh Eric Kiebler Craig Stonaha Frederic Simon Alex Gan Matthew Johnson Michael Purcell John Funai Adrien Molyneux Bradley Jenkins Vlad Shipulin Justin Waters Thomas Dougherty Zac Sweers Dan Warren Joseph Salomone 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