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takyon writes:

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/chinas-quantum-satellite-achieves-spooky-action-record-distance

Quantum entanglement—physics at its strangest—has moved out of this world and into space. In a study that shows China's growing mastery of both the quantum world and space science, a team of physicists reports that it sent eerily intertwined quantum particles from a satellite to ground stations separated by 1200 kilometers, smashing the previous world record. The result is a stepping stone to ultrasecure communication networks and, eventually, a space-based quantum internet.

"It's a huge, major achievement," says Thomas Jennewein, a physicist at the University of Waterloo in Canada. "They started with this bold idea and managed to do it."

[...] The implications go beyond record-setting demonstrations: A network of satellites could someday connect the quantum computers being designed in labs worldwide. Pan's paper "shows that China is making the right decisions," says Zeilinger, who has pushed the European Space Agency to launch its own quantum satellite. "I'm personally convinced that the internet of the future will be based on these quantum principles."

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