&gt;&gt; Though long enough to circle the moon more than six times<p>&gt;Why do journalists do this?<p>Good question. You see stuff like this all the time. &quot;That&#x27;s three trillion gallons of water, or enough water to fill up five million Olympic-sized swimming pools.&quot; As if people can somehow visualize five million swimming pools any better than three trillion gallons. Drives me bonkers.