'Hella' Big: What Do You Call 1000000000000000000000000000?

March 3, 2010— -- Should a Northern California slang term become the official word for a giant number? Nearly 30,000 people think it's a hella good idea.

In mid-February, Austin Sendek, a University of California at Davis physics student, launched an online campaign to make "hella" the official prefix for numbers with 27 zeros after the first digit. A Facebook petition supporting the idea has picked up steam, attracting almost 30,000 students and scientists from around the world.

"The analysis of many physical phenomena reveals natural quantities in excess of 27 orders of magnitude, a number which is currently ignored by the SI system," Sendek wrote in an open letter on Facebook detailing his argument, referring to the International System of Units (SI). "Designating a prefix for 10^27 is of critical importance for scientists in all fields."

The number could be valuable in calculating distances between galaxies, the number of atoms in a large sample and the wattage of the sun, he continued.

Following the SI tradition of naming units of measurement after accomplished scientists, Sendek said using "hella" would honor the scientific community of Northern California.

According to the Urban Dictionary the word originated in San Francisco and is often used instead of "really" or "very," as in "Thank God LA is hella far away."

In addition to the Facebook page, Sendek launched a "Make Hella Official" blog and online store that sells "hella" campaign T-shirts and stickers. He didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from ABCNews.com.

The largest prefix in SI, which is determined by the International Committee for Weights and Measures, is "yotta," which refers to 10^24. Zetta (10^21), Exa (10^18), Peta (10^15) and Tera (10^12) are close behind.