A vast network of computers identifies the largest prime number ever, which runs to 17 million digits.

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Image Caption: The prime number is the largest ever identified

Mathematicians have found the largest prime number ever identified - which is 17 million digits long.

The new record holder and its predecessor, discovered in 2008, were both found using a vast network of computers dubbed the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (Gimps).

George Woltman, the scientist who created the Gimps network, said the task of finding a new prime number is "analogous to climbing Mount Everest".

He told Scientific American: "People enjoy it for the challenge of the discovery of finding something that's never been known before."

The number was discovered by mathematicians at the University of Central Missouri.

A different computer system running on different hardware confirmed that it is a prime number.

Prime numbers are numbers that cannot be divided by any numbers other than themselves or one to generate a whole number.

It is the third Mersenne prime discovered by the university, and the 48th ever discovered.


They are expressed as 2P-1, or two to the power of "P'' minus one. P itself is a prime number. For the new prime, P is 57,885,161.

The research team will be awarded a $3,000 (£1,900) prize from Gimps for the discovery, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation has offered $150,000 (£95,000) for the first 100 million digit prime number to be found.