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The Week In Numbers: The Brightest Explosion Ever, A Ticket To The Moon, And More

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Gamma-ray Burst (Artist's Conception)

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3.6 billion light-years: the distance from Earth of a recently observed gamma-ray burst, the brightest explosion NASA scientists have ever seen

$25,000: the fine internet providers face per day if they refuse to spy for the FBI

200 horsepower: the oomph in the turbodiesel engine of this four-passenger, homebuilt aircraft, one of the greatest inventions of the year

1,042: the total number of space rocks humanity has witnessed falling to Earth (see an animation of every meteorite impact in history)

$750 million: the price of a ticket for a ride to the moon in this startup's Pumpkin lunar lander

120: the number of times per second the world's smallest flying robot flaps its wings

2: the number of felonies this 16-year-old girl has been charged with after she accidentally created a bang in her school's science lab

2019: the year by which Buzz Aldrin says a U.S. president should commit to sending humans to Mars

$37 billion: the amount the U.S. Navy has spent to build a warship that barely works

2 years: the length of time Los Alamos National Lab has had secret quantum internet!

1937: the year the Hindenburg Zeppelin exploded over New Jersey, killing 35 people and abruptly ending the era of the airship

2.62 million years: the half-life of iron-60, a heavy iron isotope recently discovered inside 2.2-million-year-old bacteria on the seafloor (which means the ocean-dwelling microbes ate supernova dust!)

20: the number of vials of Apollo 11 moon dust that were just rediscovered after being lost in storage for years

$250: the price of Earl, a new e-ink, Android tablet designed for use in the wild

33kHz: the upper limit of sound frequency that can be heard by the greater wax moth, the animal with the most extreme sense of hearing on Earth

1 day: the length of time it takes to build this awesome DIY bike-mounted USB hub (for charging gadgets on the go)

200 mph: the top speed of this new flying car capable of vertical takeoff and automatic landing

$30: the cost of a 28-pound cardboard bike that can support a rider 20 times its weight

    



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