Did meteorite fragments land in a town in Dorset?

A hunt is on for missing fragments of a meteorite that lit up the sky across southern England as it fell to Earth.

Dozens of people reported seeing two fireballs across England, Wales and northern France at about midnight on Saturday 25 November and at about 6am later that morning.

Several people captured videos and photos that showed large bright objects appearing to flare up and recede in the sky.

Experts from the UK Meteor Observation Network (UKMON) have analysed the path of both objects and based upon their data, believe it is possible that a small amount of the first may have hit the ground.

The researchers worked out that, after it stopped burning up at 15.5 miles (25km) high, it continued falling and may have eventually landed in Ferndown, Dorset, just north of Bournemouth.

UKMON member Richard Fleet told Sky News: "At 16km per second the midnight fireball was fairly slow as meteors go, which improves the chances of anything surviving.

"The meteoroid was fairly large at around 50kg and came from the asteroid belt so was likely to be of stony material.

"The conclusion is that there is a possibility of something having survived to the ground.

"Most of it was vaporised leaving maybe less than 1% of the original mass, so we are looking at a few hundred grams of material in the form of small stones scattered over a few kilometres."

But he added: "Unless fragments this size land on open ground they're unlikely to be noticed."

Mr Fleet explained that, after the meteorite stops burning, it is almost in free fall - and can even be affected by high altitude winds.

"All that can really be said at this stage is that it may have landed near Ferndown in Dorset," he added.

The report, by Czech expert Jakub Koukal, determined that the asteroid was probably connected to asteroid 2015 WZ1, a member of the class of so-called Apollo asteroids - near-earth objects - some of which have the potential to be hazardous.

Mr Fleet said the later fireball is thought to have been caused by a fragment of a comet, which was smaller and made of more fragile material and is unlikely to have survived to the ground.

He added that the midnight meteorite "was small to form a crater and any fragments would be lying on the surface, or more likely in crops or grass.

"It would look like a fairly ordinary stone with perhaps a smooth dark grey crust, and if broken, rather ordinary looking stone inside," he said.

"The fragments could be spread over several kilometres so spotting them would need a good deal of luck.

"If someone does have a convincing specimen from that area they should contact the Natural History Museum, but they should bear in mind it's more likely to be a meteor-wrong than a meteorite!"