Google Maps pit turns out to be 390-million-year-old meteorite crater

In late 2023, amateur astronomer Joël Lapointe was doing something very ordinary: Mapping out forest roads for a summer road trip in Quebec. While zooming around northern regions on Google Maps, he spotted something that looked anything but ordinary. It was a neat, circular depression in the landscape, about 100 kilometers north of the town of Magpie.On screen it appeared as a ring-like pit in the middle of the forest. For someone who loves space and meteorites, it was enough to make him pause. “For an amateur astronomer who loves to connect with space and loves meteorites, it was just amazing,” Lapointe later recalled, reported CTV News.From “this can’t be real” to “maybe it is”Lapointe’s first reaction wasn’t to celebrate; instead it was to doubt himself.