Single Photons Bounced Off Orbiting Satellite

KentuckyFC writes "If we're ever going to benefit from the perfect security of quantum communication, we're going to need ways of transmitting entangled photons around the globe and certainly further than the current record of 144km through the atmosphere. Anton Zeilinger at the University of Vienna and colleagues have taken an important step towards this by bouncing individual photons off the Ajisai geodetic satellite (essentially a space-based disco ball) which is orbiting at 1400km. The group says the experiment is an important proof of principle for satellite-based quantum communications."

Comments

well, no

[Ancient_Hacker]

Ah, from some angles, this experiment proves the opposite. You need the photons to be "entangled". That means effectively in their own little world, not intereacting with the universe in any way. Shooting them up through 10^38 atoms of the atmosphere and bouncing them off a satellite is the exact opposite of entanglement.