Researchers have discovered the world’s largest prime number which consists of over 17 million digits.

• The number has now shot up to 2 multiplied by itself 57,885,161 times minus 1.
• The finding was made as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS).

What is GIMPS?

• GIMPS is a distributed computing project designed to discover a particular kind of prime number first identified in the 17th century.
• All prime numbers can only be divided by themselves and 1.

What are Mersenne prime numbers?

• The Mersenne prime numbers are rare which occur in the form 2 multiplied by itself p times minus 1, where p is itself a prime number. Thus its general form is 2^p-1.
• The latest finding is only the 48^th  Mersenne prime ever found and the 14th discovered by GIMPS.