China launches world first quantum satellite

Beijing : China launched the world's first quantum satellite Tuesday, state media reported, in an effort to harness the power of particle physics to build an "unhackable" system of encrypted communications.

The launch took place at 1:40 am in the southwestern Gobi Desert, the official Xinhua news service said, and comes as the US, Japan and others also seek to develop applications for the burgeoning technology.

Beijing has poured enormous resources into the race, one of several cutting edge projects the world's second largest economy has pursued as part of its massive national investment in advanced scientific research, on everything from asteroid mining to gene manipulation.

The satellite -- nicknamed Micius after a 5th century BC Chinese philosopher and scientist -- will be used in experiments intended to prove the viability of quantum technology to communicate over long distances.

It will also further investigations into some of the more unusual properties of sub-atomic particles, including "quantum entanglement", Xinhua said.

The term describes what Albert Einstein described as the "spooky" phenomenon of particles exerting influence on each other at a distance, including the ability for paired particles to mirror each other at faster-than-light speeds.

Unlike traditional secure communication methods, China's proposed system uses photons to send the encryption keys necessary to decode information.

The data contained in the bursts of subatomic particles is impossible to intercept: any attempts at eavesdropping will cause them to self-destruct, Xinhua said, letting users know that their communications have been compromised.

Scientists have shown the trick can be used to transmit messages over relatively short distances: the current record is around 300 kilometres, according to an article in the journal Nature.

But technical hurdles have kept long-range communication out of reach.