Surprised the discussion didn't also mention that Venus is so close to the Sun that it's local gravitational well (Hills radius) is so small that it makes it hard to hold onto a moon. The Sun simply dominates, so a body ends up orbiting the Sun, not the planet.
I have a feeling that I initially heard about that explanation for Mercury and Venus not having moons on an earlier episode?
Wasn't the guest patron essentially on there to promote their app and looking for support, whether monetary or alpha users to build the database?
Neat idea and use of the technology of course. And I suppose they are supporting their supporters?
Just felt bit jarring to me.
First lot of reports all had a line about the fact that the fall for the section that broke off the glacier was sufficient to turn it into water. I stopped yesterday and thought, is that actually the case and did a quick calculation.
Assuming the fall was 2km to be generous, g is 10 m/s/s, only ice/water is involved, no heating of the ice or water considered since that is negligible to the energy required for melting ..
E(gravity potential) = mgh = 1x10x2000 = 20 kJ/kg
H(melting/freezing) = 330 kJ/kg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthalpy\_of\_fusion)
% energy gained of the energy required to just melt the ice at its melting/freezing temperature is 6%
So the increase in energy of the glacier by breaking and falling was insufficient to turn it all into water. The volume of water going down the valley was due to some other more significant factors.