December 21st, 2015 – This past June, the University of Padua and the Italian Space Agency’s Center for Space Geodesy in Matera worked together to make the first quantum satellite transmission in history, proving that it is possible to send virtually inviolable information for a record distance of 1700 km using a beam of photons “shot” into space and returned to earth in a nanosecond. The game-changing discovery of the pentaquark and the Larets satellite are one of the eight highlights of 2015 according to the American Physical Society. The two elements allowed the University of Padua to present the first quantum communication from space. Information today travels on fiber or radio waves, using bits. Each bit can be stored, copied, or intercepted, making it unsuitable for secure communications without a cryptographic key, which may still be cracked. The solution is offered by quantum communication. This uses light as a “messenger”, ie photons, indivisible micro-particles, which generate light pulses instead of electrical ones. Classical bits are replaced by quantum bits – aka qubits – which transfer from a transmitter to a receiver the quantum states of individual photons. “Thanks to the experiment, which was made possible after 12 years of research – said Paolo Villoresi team leader of the researchers from Padua University and Professor in the Department of Information Engineering – we could demonstrate the feasibility of exchanging an encrypted message via inviolable satellite at a never achieved before distance, all the while confirming some basic principles of quantum mechanics (such as the maintenance of the state of a photon on a channel of telecommunications). Looking at the global use of quantum communication, space is the frontier to consider: exchanging quantum states at a long distance has limitations – continued Villoresi – such as the curvature of the earth, that the use of satellites now allows us to bypass”. (Red)
