A number with more than 41 million digits has set a new world record. It’s called M136279841, and it’s the largest prime number discovered thus far. Like all primes, it is divisible only by 1 and itself. Luke Durant, a computer programmer from California, identified M136279841. It beats the previous title holder for largest prime number by more than 16 million digits.
Durant found the number as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, which provides volunteers with computer software to calculate bigger and bigger prime numbers. Durant ran the program for a year before finding M136279841.