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Re: (meteorobs) Excerpts from "CCNet 123/2001 - 22 November 2001"

>>Riddle me this.  If all meteors from comets are very fragile dust grains,
explain the flashes on the moon.<<

Fragile composition, yes. But not all leonid particles are of the size of dust grains. Some are larger and thus produce brighter meteors in the earths' atmosphere.  But impacting on the moon, they are with very high unimpeded velocity. Combine the larger objects with the very high velocity and there might be flashes see on the moon.

 >>If, on one hand we readily accept that the
dust trails include chucks that are large enough to generate a flash on the
moon visable from Earth, isn't it plausible that similarly sized chunks hit
Indiana? <<

No.  Again mainly because of the very high velocity and the general fragile composition. I believe those folks in Indiana described a stony type meteorite? If so, with an entry velocity of 71 km/s, it wouldn't be strong enough to withstand the rigors of extreme braking in the atmosphere. I believe if we expect a meteoroid to survive the meteor process to end up dropping a meteorite, it shouldn't be traveling faster than about 27 km/s. Any faster, it would be the old "Slamming a dirt clod against a brick wall" trick.
GeoZay