On 22 September, a man found a giant meteorite crater in Canada. Amateur astronomy enthusiast Joël Lapointe was studying satellite maps of Quebec, choosing a place for a hike, and noticed a suspiciously perfect circular structure.
He looked more closely. He got interested. He passed the information on to specialists.
And it turned out that this was not a lake, not a hill, and not a quirk of the map, but a giant ancient impact crater aged about 390 million years and with a diameter of roughly 25 kilometres.
In other words, the man was literally looking for a place to pitch his tent, and found the spot where an object from space once came down.
What's more, the search itself began back in the year 2024, and now new data has emerged confirming the significance of this discovery.
The story is wonderful already because usually, after the phrase "I was just looking at a map before a hike," the most you find is a new trail.
But here:
he didn't pitch his tent, but he did rewrite Quebec's geology a little.
Now the phrase "a good spot for camping" sounds somehow too modest.
Scientists then confirmed: it is the trace of an impact aged about 390 million years and with a diameter of roughly 25 kilometres. The campsite search itself began back in 2024, but the details of the confirmation were published only now. He planned to find a spot for his tent — and found the place where something considerably larger than a tent once came down.
