Researchers reveal a new prime number that could help solve a 50 year old maths puzzle- and it’s 9.3 MILLION digits long.

New prime number, 10223 × 2^31172165 + 1, is 9.3 million digits long
Mathematicians say it’s the seventh largest prime number known to date
Number takes one candidate for lowest Sierpinski number out of running

Mathematicians have discovered a new prime number that is more that nine million digits long.

And, they say it could help to solve the decades-old ‘Sierpinski problem.’

While it’s not the longest ever found, the existence of the new prime, 10223 × 2^31172165 + 1, now takes one of the six possible candidates for the lowest Sierpinski