Slightly late, but the 43rd Mersenne Prime was discovered in December 2005.
On December 15, 2005, Dr. Curtis Cooper and Dr. Steven Boone, professors at Central Missouri State University, discovered the 43rd Mersenne Prime, 230,402,457-1. The CMSU team is the most prolific contributor to the GIMPS project. The discovery is the largest known prime number.
The new prime is 9,152,052 digits long.
The EFF's prizes remain to be won.
Through the EFF Cooperative Computing Awards, EFF will confer prizes of:
- $50,000 to the first individual or group who discovers
a prime number with at least 1,000,000 decimal digits (awarded Apr. 6, 2000)
- $100,000 to the first individual or group who discovers
a prime number with at least 10,000,000 decimal digits
- $150,000 to the first individual or group who discovers
a prime number with at least 100,000,000 decimal digits
- $250,000 to the first individual or group who discovers
a prime number with at least 1,000,000,000 decimal digits