" The Milky Way galaxy weighs about 1 trillion times as much as our sun, according to a new estimate.

Previous estimates had ranged from 750 billion solar masses to up to 2 trillion. Lately, researchers have been leaning toward the higher figure. But now astronomers have used a more refined method to conclude that our galaxy's mass is slightly less than 1 trillion solar masses."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080527/sc_space/themilkywayisweighed

The rate at which this sort of cosmological information is coming in is exciting. Whereas, not so long ago, we might have had such an update every several years, it now seems to be happening many times per year. All part of the logarithmic progress of science as a whole, I suppose. Information and technology fuelling themselves in an expanding spiral.