Earth now weighs six ronnagrams: New metric prefixes voted in

[Jim__]

From phys.org

Say hello to ronnagrams and quettameters: International scientists gathered in France voted on Friday for new metric prefixes to express the world's largest and smallest measurements, prompted by an ever-growing amount of data.

It marks the first time in more than three decades that new prefixes have been added to the International System of Units (SI), the agreed global standard for the metric system.

...

"If we think about mass, instead of distance, the Earth weighs approximately six ronnagrams," which is a six followed by 27 zeroes, Brown said.

"Jupiter, that's about two quettagrams," he added—a two followed by 30 zeros.

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[Ferrets are Cool]

1. The earth needs to go on a diet.

Every year, Earth gains about the weight of two aircraft carriers landing on it: two "HMS Ark Royals", or about 40,000 tonnes-worth of debris, which lands on Earth from space.

You can demonstrate this for yourself. If you put a big plastic sheet or a white sheet on your grass in the garden on a nice day, leave it for a few hours and then run a magnet over it. You can often find specks have just fallen down from outer space and landed on your magnet. Debris, dust and other stuff raining in from space contributes a huge amount of weight to the Earth every single year.