Biggest Prime

A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF prime numbers-if we were to compile and write it out-would make this an absolutely insufferable article to read through. And, technically, we couldn't do it anyway. Theoretically, there are infinite prime numbers, but they become fewer and farther between as you count higher and higher.

- Jackie Appel

That hasn't stopped mathematicians, both professional and amateur, from trying to find new ones. In fact, in 1996, computer scientist George Woltman started a project known as the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) in order to do exactly that. And the search recently got its first hit in almost six years.

Amateur number detective Luke Durant (a researcher and former employee of the software company NVIDIA) recently found the biggest prime ever discovered: 2136,279,841-1, now also known as M136279841. According to a press release, the find was made on October 11, 2024, and confirmed on October 12, and the number is over 40 million digits long-more than 16 million digits larger than the next largest prime.