SYDNEY - Who knew that respected theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking was exactly the right person to answer a poser on former One Direction boyband member Zayn Malik?

The Buzzfeed website reported that Hawking was speaking at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday night as a 3D hologram. He was commenting on the future of humanity when a question came from way out of left field: "What do you think is the cosmological effect of Zayn leaving One Direction and consequently breaking the hearts of millions of teenage girls across the world?"

The Washington Post drily noted that Hawking, who suffers from a rare form of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), "spent precious minutes that otherwise could have been used making scientific discoveries or meditating on the true nature of reality to offer a cogent answer".

"Finally, a question about something important," was Hawking's opening salvo to the query, noted Buzzfeed.

"My advice to any heartbroken young girl is to pay close attention to the study of theoretical physics. Because one day there may well be proof of multiple universes. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere outside of our own universe lies another different universe.

"And in that universe, Zayn is still in One Direction."

He added encouragingly: "This girl may like to know that in another possible universe, she and Zayn are happily married."