Why does 1**2**3**4**5 raise a MemoryError?

[Roy Smith]

In article <5157e6cc$0$29974$c3e8da3$5496439d at news.astraweb.com>,
 Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:

> For what it's worth, that last intermediate result (two to the power of 
> the 489-digit number) has approximately a billion trillion trillion 
> trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion 
> trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion 
> trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion 
> trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion 
> trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion digits.
> 
> (American billion and trillion, 10**9 and 10**12 respectively.)

What's that in crore?