45th Known Mersenne Prime Found?

On August 23rd, a computer reported finding a new Mersenne prime to the server! Because I was on vacation, verification did not begin until the 26th. Two verification runs are in progress. Estimated completion is September 12th and September 16th.

Although large Primes are used in cryptography, quoted from the original article :-

Finding new Mersenne primes is not likely to be of any immediate practical value. This search is primarily a recreational pursuit. However, the search for Mersenne primes has proved useful in development of new algorithms, testing computer hardware, and interesting young students in math.

So I guess that just makes it damn cool!

For geek reference a prime in the 10 million digit range would require about 33 million bits ( ln(10)/ln(2) = 3.3219 ) or 4MB.

Read the full article here