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

Re:Complicatedly Unacceptable

[morgan_greywolf]

Not to mention photons are like words: you shouldn't use those you don't understand. Is it a wave or is it matter? It's both. When you're lookin' at it it's a particle, when you're not it's a wave. Is this just too hard for you to accept?