Largest known prime number

The largest known prime number is the biggest known integer which is a prime number. To date, it equals 2136279841 − 1, it would take 41,024,320 digits to write that entire number out. The number was found on October 11, 2024 

A merssene prime number is when 2 is raised to the power of a prime number minus 1. This will always equal a prime number. An example would be 2 to the power of 5 is 32 - 1 = 31.

History
This table lists every number that was once the largest known prime number. The first known record was from 1456. The number 524,287 was the largest known prime number for 144 years.

Mn is short for 2n − 1, the Mersenne number with exponent n.

 Prime number Number of digits Year found Notes M13 8,191 4 1456 Finder not known M17 131,071 6 1460 Finder not known M19 524,287 6 1588 Found by Pietro Cataldi (232+1)/641 6,700,417 7 1732 Found by Leonhard Euler M31 2,147,483,647 10 1772 Found by Leonhard Euler (264+1)/274177 67,280,421,310,721 14 1855 Found by Thomas Clausen M127 170,141,183,460,469,231,731,687,303,715,884,105,727 39 1876 Found by Édouard Lucas (2148+1)/17 20,988,936,657,440,586,486,151,264,256,610,222,593,863,921 44 1951 Found by Ferrier. The largest record not set by computer. 180×(M127)2+1 79 1951 Using Cambridge's EDSAC computer M521  157 1952 M607 183 1952 M1279 386 1952 M2203 664 1952 M2281 687 1952 M3217 969 1957 M4423 1,332 1961 M9689 2,917 1963 M9941 2,993 1963 M11213 3,376 1963 M19937 6,002 1971 M21701 6,533 1978 M23209 6,987 1979 M44497 13,395 1979 M86243 25,962 1982 M132049 39,751 1983 M216091 65,050 1985 391581×2216193−1 65,087 1989 M756839 227,832 1992 M859433 258,716 1994 M1257787 378,632 1996 M1398269 420,921 1996 M2976221 895,932 1997 M3021377 909,526 1998 M6972593 2,098,960 1999 M13466917 4,053,946 2001 M20996011 6,320,430 2003 M24036583 7,235,733 2004 M25964951 7,816,230 2005 M30402457 9,152,052 2005 M32582657 9,808,358 2006 M43112609 12,978,189 2008M57885161 17,425,170 2013M7420728122,338,6182016 M7723291723,249,425 2017 M82589933 24,862,048  2018 M136279841 41,024,320 2024

 References 

Other websites
 Press release about the largest known prime 257,885,161−1

Category:Prime numbers