ronna and quetta

Macquarie Dictionary has the prefixes zetta- (10 to the power of 21),  zepto- (10 to the power of minus 21), yotta- (10 to the power of 24) and yocto- (10 to the power of minus 24), all created in 1991 as SI units, but it needs to go further now since the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) met at Versailles on 18 November 2022 and introduced four new prefixes to the International System of Units.  These are ronna- (10 to the power of 27) and ronto- (10 to the power of minus 27) and quetta- (10 to the power of 30) and quecto- (10 to the power of minus 30).

The need for these extra prefixes arises from the ever-expanding volume of data generated globally. It is thought that the world will generate a yottabyte of data per year by the 2030s.

Amusingly the metrologists stepped in because people were doing their own thing, creating joke prefixes like hella- and bronto- for 10 to the power of 27. These unofficial terms were creating confusion because their symbols, h and b, were already in use in the metric system.  Something had to be done before these names became entrenched. Fortunately the system now is tidied up and should see us through for a while.