The scientists said the presumed area where the fragments had landed is hard to access, because of bogs, lakes and forests around

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/. Fragments of a celestial body that was observed over Moscow and the adjacent Moscow Region in the early hours of October 27 probably fell somewhere near the M11 highway, connecting the Russian capital and its second largest city, St. Petersburg, the solar astronomy laboratory of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences said on Telegram.

The scientists said the presumed area where the fragments had landed is hard to access, because of bogs, lakes and forests around. However, the fact that the meteorite was probably made of metal will make the search slightly easier.

The possibility that the fireball was a fragment of the DRO-B spacecraft is apparently ruled out. Experts continue to study its orbit and origin.

According to scientists, the meteorite disintegrated into a large number of small fragments measuring around 1 cm, and several large pieces of the size of a tennis ball or even a basketball.

The fireball flew over the cities of Vologda and Cherepovets, and the northern part of the Rybinskoye reservoir before being destroyed by two blasts at the altitude of 42 and 32 km over the town of Pestovo in the Novgorod Region. Fragments fell within a quadrangle formed by the towns of Borovichi, Vyshny Volochek, Maksatikha and Pestovo.

Numerous photos and videos were posted on social media on Monday morning, showing a bright fireball flying above Moscow and the surrounding region at about 6:30 a.m. local time (3:30 a.m. GMT). Eyewitnesses and astronomy bloggers speculated that it could have been either a small meteorite about 10-20 centimeters in size or a space debris fragment.