Sometimes trying another language gives a new slant to one's understanding. On the French Wiki about bolides, they have a table which when translated says:
Names, mass and duration
If one has access to the trajectory data of a fireball, they will often tell at which altitude it was extinguished, and the duration of the event.
There are some comments in the Wiki about the process the meteor is subject to when entering into the atmosphere of the Earth:
Fragmentation process
The light
The sounds
There appear to be two sources of sound if they are present, those resulting from sonic booms and those caused by electric effects
Names, mass and duration
| Name | Mass | Altitude | Duration | [My comments] |
| Shooting star | 1 gram | 110-80 km | 1-2 sec | Would it reach up to 0.5 kg, could it be less than a gram? |
| Bolide | order of kilogram | 80-50 km | 2-5 s | Duration would also depend on incoming speed and angle. |
| -"- | From 0.5 to 10 tonnes | 80-13 km | 5-40 s | 10 tons sounds harmless, but the Chelyabinsk superbolide weighed an estimated 11,000 tons! |
There are some comments in the Wiki about the process the meteor is subject to when entering into the atmosphere of the Earth:
Fragmentation process
One way of understanding why the speed drops upon fragmentation is that the total surface area increases compared to what it was before. At the same time, the density of the surrounding air keeps increasing too leading to even more resistance. Both these effects lead to a slower speed.
The light
This has probably been mentioned before, but here is a nice picture that shows the colour different metals can give when heated:
The sounds
There appear to be two sources of sound if they are present, those resulting from sonic booms and those caused by electric effects
