To determine if the debris that struck Earth originated like the rings of Saturn, from a debris ring, the scientists studied the dispersal pattern of the meteor cluster by analyzing the meteor impacts on parts of the Earth’s surface that have been largely undisturbed since the Ordovician period.

North America, Western Australia, and Europe were studied, allowing the Earth and Planetary scientists to determine where the impact craters from meteor strikes were located during the Ordovician period. All of the impact craters were clustered within 30 degrees of the equator, even though all of the surface was exposed at the time, meaning that there was something apart from chance causing the strikes to form a pattern.