14 DAY TRIAL // A scientific installation operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Canary Islands, the Optical Ground Station, has recently been used to establish a new world record in quantum teleportation.
During the new experiment, the characteristics of a single photon were reproduced at a distance of 143 kilometers (88.85 miles). Scientists from Austria, Canada, Germany and Norway worked together on this achievement, backed up by ESA funds.
In quantum teleportation, two photons located far away from each other are placed in a state of quantum entanglement, and the physical properties of the first are translated to the other. The drive in the scientific community today is to do this over the largest distance possible.
The ESA-backed team used the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope on La Palma and the ESA Optical Ground Station, on adjacent Tenerife, for the job. The study is detailed in this week's issue of Nature.