Behold: The largest prime number ever discovered

It has 17,425,170 digits

The newly discovered largest prime number on record has 4,446,981 more digits than its predecessor.
(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Using an arrangement of powerful computers running trillions of calculations every second, mathematicians have discovered the largest prime number yet. (In case you missed math class: A prime number can only be divided by 1 and itself. So the roster of prime numbers includes 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, and on and on.)

In this case, the behemoth prime number contains 17,425,170 digits and is much too long to repost for the purposes of this article. (You can, however, download the entire 22MB text file here.)

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Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.