This week in science: Millions and billions and trillions

The dwarf planet Ceres, largest object in the main asteroid belt; one of millions of lucrative oases floating in space?

The dwarf planet Ceres, largest object in the main asteroid belt; one of millions of lucrative oases floating in space?

Three zillionaires, an astronaut and a corp of dreamy engineers walked into a bar and decided to shoot waaaay beyond the moon:

The exact nature of Planetary Resource's business is still under wraps, but speculation centers on the possibility of an asteroid mining company.

"The company will overlay two critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources — to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP," the company said in a media alert announcing an unveiling next Tuesday. "This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources.'"

There are a lot of resources out there just floating around in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres, for example, is thought to be loaded with rocky compounds containing all sorts of elements, along with methane and water (It also has the ideal dymanics for a space elevator compared to earth or Mars). How these guys plan to get to them, or get them back, is a whole 'nother story. We'll see ...

• What ever happened to Sw33tBabyJ4ne? There's millions of cyber-savvy millennials in the world and a new in-depth poll holds some fascinating data on the most important U.S. demographic among them: those old enough to vote in 2012.
• I've blogged about rogue planets and nomads and even a few wandering worlds that reach incredible speeds. Now some scientists say billions of stars, including some like our our sun, have captured their share of those rogue planets, making them part of an alien solar system.
• Monday Monday Monday, this April 30, one day only! SpaceX set to launch first newspace rocket and spacecraft to the ISS. There's a lot more riding on that Falcon 9 booster than a prototype Dragon capsule. Like billions in spacebucks and billions more in an IPO that could follow next year. Daily Kos interview with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk here.
• Speaking of IPO's, the bank accounts of the world's 40 richest people gained an additional $88 billion since the start of the year, pushing their combined net worth over one trillion dollars, and it could shoot higher still just from Facebook hitting the NYSE later this year.  
• The hottest selling car in America may surprise some people, make zillions for the auto and related industries, and still make Republican Jesus cry.
• A million, a billion and a trillion; let's put those numbers in perspective. The SpaceX launch on April 30 is almost a million seconds from now, if you're old enough to just barely remember the end of Reagan's second term you're probably close to a billion seconds old, but a trillion seconds might make you old enough to remember the last Neanderthal ~30,000 BC.

  Too science-y? How about this: A trillion dollars is literally too much money for one person to consume during their lifetime in any way that doesn't involve something along the lines of setting huge piles of cash on fire.