Quote:
Originally Posted by Bagor
Out of curiosity, how were they able to estimate the weight at ~10 tonne (from the article)?
The size from the images? amount of light? speed?
Combination of all of the above?
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Probably amount of light. The size from the images would be useless as it wasn't actually the size of the object that you saw on the videos, just the light being bright enough to wash out the sensor on the camera. The actual object was 1.5 - 2m across, no way you're going to see that any distance away let alone in Edmonton.
The amount of light probably gives an idea of how much material is burning, and they probably have a good idea of how much material would burn for all different sizes of incoming rocks. If you know the size, and the approximate density you can get the mass. Approximate density would be a WAG from the way it burned up and knowledge of general composition of past meteors... if it was an ice ball it would have looked different.
Speed, things fall at the same rate regardless of their mass in a vacuum, and the air resistance will depend on the shape as well as the mass so it's hard to say. Something that small isn't big enough to form itself into a sphere so who knows what shape it was originally.