October 28, 2024: Tonight's Winning Intergalactic Lottery Number Is . . . [Long Inhale]

On October 21, the (current) biggest prime number was found, courtesy of the the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project. It's a Mersenne prime – named after French monk Bob Prime Marin Mersenne – meaning it's a power of two, minus one.

And so, we welcome to the prime family . . . 2^136279841-1. Please update your luggage code accordingly.

(As an aside, my love of Stan Lee-esque hyperbole almost made me end the statement two sentences ago with an exclamation point – but I didn't want to hear from a bunch of folks pointing out that 1! is just one . . .)

-- Steven Marsh