A ring could explain a mysterious arrangement of impact craters near the equator and might even have caused an ice age, according to a new study

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

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.

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.

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.

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