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Rings Around Earth From Ancient Meteorites

Posted by Hemos on from the ring-around-the-rosey-pocket-full-of-posey dept.

HorsePunchKid writes "According to an article on CNN (SNL version), ancient meteorites may have glanced off of the surface and shattered, causing rings around the Earth. These rings, which may have persisted for hundreds of thousands of years, could have had a profound effect on the climate in tropical regions, where the rings would block out light from the Sun. Still rather speculative, but the theory may help explain some patterns observed in the geological record. The idea has been around for a while, and some scientists are skeptical."

5 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. whoa by jdkane · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    The polarization, or scattering, in that afterglow that the astronomers found was produced when cosmic light last interacted with matter nearly 14 billion years ago, the report said.

    I can not suspend my disbelief about this one. There are too many light sources in space. IMHO, the light from the Big Bang should be travelling away from earth instead of towards it -- How did they see it? If they did see it, how can they even have an inkling that its from the beginnings of the earth -- there are uncountable light sources from space.

    I think somebody needs funding, and somebody has a lot of useless time on their hands.

    I'm looking forward not only to the scientific explanations that follow, but other theories about whether there is a remote chance or not that the people in the article see what they think they are seeing.

  2. Re:Weekend Update by Covener · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ... Once again proving my theory that Germans love David Hasselhoff.

  3. Re:Wrong by hplasm · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Yay. Well said,droog.

    --
    ...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
  4. Re:Repost from Tuesday (OT) by HorsePunchKid · · Score: 2, Offtopic
    My apologies. I didn't see the older story. I suppose I could have done a search before I submitted, but then... couldn't the editors have? *sigh* Thanks for the link, in any case.

    --
    Steven N. Severinghaus
  5. Re:That reminds me... by msheppard · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    What did Spock find in the toilet?

    The captians log.

    M@

    --
    Krispy Cream is people