12,978,189 digits

2 new primes!

The two new Mersenne primes are:

M45: --- M46:

On August 23rd, a UCLA computer discovered the 45th known Mersenne prime, 2^43,112,609-1, a mammoth 12,978,189 digit number! The prime number qualifies for the Electronic Frontier Foundation's $100,000 award for discovery of the first 10 million digit prime number. Congratulations to Edson Smith, who was responsible for installing and maintaining the GIMPS software on the UCLA Mathematics Department's computers.

On September 6th, the 46th known Mersenne prime, 2^37,156,667-1, a 11,185,272 digit number was found by Hans-Michael Elvenich in Langenfeld near Cologne, Germany! This was the first Mersenne prime to be discovered out of order since Colquitt and Welsh discovered 2^110,503-1 in 1988.

Congratulations to all GIMPS members for their part in making this happen!!

You can read all about their discovery at Mersenne