Meet the new largest known prime number. It starts with a 4, continues on for 23 million digits, then ends with a 1. As is true with all prime numbers, it can only be evenly divided by one and itself.

Editor's Note: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story omitted part of the calculation for the new prime number, correctly described below as 2 multiplied by itself 57,885,161 times ...

It’s time for a new prime to shine. The largest known prime number is now 2 74,207,281 – 1, smashing the previous record by nearly 5 million digits. This mathematical monster was discovered by Curtis ...