Last year China launched the Micius satellite from the Gobi desert with the name of a Chinese philosopher who died in 391 BC. The satellite was in orbit synchronizing with the sun so that it passes by the earth every day at the same time.
Micius is an ultra-sensitive photon receiver that detects the quantum states of photons coming from Earth. It will allow scientists to test quantum technology constructions for entanglement, cryptography and teleportation. A year later, the Micius satellite team unveiled the results of its first experiments.
To beat the record of measured entanglement (100 km), Chinese scientists used this quantum network to teleport the first "object" of Earth to orbital space. Although teleportation has become a standard operation in quantum optics laboratories around the world, no such distance has ever been traveled, 500 km. Teleportation is based on the phenomenon of entanglement, but what is it? This phenomenon of entanglement occurs when two quantum objects such as photons form at the same moment and become dependent on each other no matter what the distance separates them. Because of their similarities in physical properties, these two particles or objects (if optimistic) must be considered as a single system.
To achieve this result the Chinese team created pairs of photons intrication, at a rate of 4000 per second. Each time they shot one of these photons towards the satellite that passed above the base every day at midnight and kept the other photon on Earth. To minimize photon leakage the land station was built in Ngari in Tibet at an altitude of nearly 4000 meters.
Finally, they measured the photons on earth and in orbit to confirm entanglement and thus teleportation. For 32 days they republished the operation on millions of photons and obtained positive results in 911 cases. A sufficient ratio to assert that the teleportation operation was done. The objective will now be to improve the ratio and lay the foundation for a quantum internet worldwide according to the team of researchers.
