While a lot of people worry about their weight, Australian scientists have had more perplexing things in mind. In order to find out more about the known universe, they must find out how much the Milky Way weighs.

With the help of some theories and the 1.2-meter Schmidt Telescope, they were able to do the seemingly impossible. They just estimated the total amount of matter in our galaxy at 42 zeroes following the number three. Strangely enough, the number coincides with the answer to the same question in the sci-fi novel " Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams.

They came up with the figure by measuring the escape velocities of each star possible. The escape velocity is the speed by which celestial bodies travel in order not to get drawn to the immense pull of other bodies. Once this was done, factoring in "dark matter" was the next scientific task.

Dark matter is a theoretical form of matter unseen and unconfirmed yet detectable by current means. Astronomers believe that like regular matter, this type of essence holds weight and must be factored in. Measuring the amount of dark matter characterized by their dark energy signatures, the final calculations were made.

The results were presented to an interested Australian Astronomical Society in Sydney. Also stated in the talk was the possibility of tracking the weight of the universe, though it would take considerably more effort because distant galaxies have to be studied more carefully.