[whimsicalism]

my understanding is the long scale has largely died out

think it is more than permissible to use what is scientifically standard (trillion = 10^12)

[Tor3]

Died out in English. Not in other languages where long scale was and is used, that hasn't changed at all. I'm not aware of any other language shifting from long scale to short scale (for languages traditionally using long scale).

[whimsicalism]

think it is also dying out among many other languages like portuguese

[tzot]

“Scientifically standard” are the SI prefixes. So, given the ambiguity of what 1 gigastar is (1/1000th of 1 terastar or a really huge star?) one should say “10¹²s of stars” maybe.

[whimsicalism]

Yes, the SI prefixes are one example of something that is scientifically standard. The short scale is another.