LISA reaches a crucial milestone

The future gravitational-wave observatory in space completes a rigorous review

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASAEA/ESA/CXC/STScl/GSFCSVS/S.Barke (CC BY 4.0)

LISA Pathfinder - A Space Saga

Relive the groundbreaking technology demonstrator's mission milestones 5 years ago in a new Youtube mini-series released by the LISA Consortium.

LISA Pathfinder being encapsulated within the Vega rocket. © ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut

13th LISA Symposium talks are online

Find out about the exciting future of gravitational wave astrophysics in space!

Artist's impression of a LISA spacecraft. © AEI/MM/exozet

ESA ministers commit to biggest ever budget

The significant boost in funding for ESA’s world-class and inspirational science programme will allow the first gravitational wave detector in space, LISA, to fly alongside the black hole mission Athena.

ESA’s Council at Ministerial Level, Space19+, has concluded in Seville, Spain, with the endorsement of the most ambitious plan to date for the future of ESA and the whole European space sector. Image: ESA

Why we need a gravitational wave observatory in space

The science case for LISA

Merging Black Holes. Credit: T. Pyle/LIGO

The Gravitational Universe

Illuminating the dark universe with a new astronomy

Artist's impression of supermassive black hole. Credit: ESA/NASA, AVO project, Paolo Padovani.

LISA: A New Astronomy

Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

Artist's impression of LISA satellite. Credit: AEI/MM/exozet

LPF Mission

Lancement prévu pour Decembre 2015

En route pour eLISA avec LISA Pathfinder

Vacuum integrity test of LPF. Credit: Astrium Ltd (an EADS company)

LISA Pathfinder tracera la voie vers la mission eLISA en testant, dans l’espace, le concept (les principes ?) de la détection d’ondes gravitationnelles.

L'endroit le plus silencieux du système solaire

LISA Pathfinder (LPF) placera deux masses d’épreuve en "chute libre" quasi parfaite, contrôlera et mesurera leur mouvement relatif avec une précision inégalée. Ceci sera effectué grâce à des thechnologies innovantes telles que des senseurs inertiels, un système de métrologie laser, un système à compensation de trainée et des micro-propulseurs délivrant des micro-Newton. L’ensemble de ces masses d’épreuve et leur environnement constitueront probablement un des endroits les plus "calmes" du système solaire.

Toutes ces technologies sont non seulement essentielles pour la mission eLISA, elles seront également à la base de toutes les missions qui voudront tester la théorie de la relativitié générale d’Einstein.

LPF sera lancé en novembre 2015.

The LISA Consortium

The LISA Consortium is committed to supporting the LISA mission. It includes all the main investigators involved in the highly successful LISA Pathfinder mission, a number of scientists who worked on the ground-based LIGO, Virgo, and GEO projects, and a number who worked on the Laser Ranging Interferometer on the GRACE Follow-On mission, thus making full use of the expertise accumulated so far. The LISA Consortium proposed and submitted the white paper The Gravitational Universe which was accepted for the ESA L3 slot.

If you are a scientist and wish to contribute to the LISA mission, use this scientist registration form.

A new frontier for exploring the physical universe

New movie: LISA, the first gravitational wave observatory in space

On the occasion of the 236th meeting of the American Astronomical Society the LISA Consortium launched a new movie about ESA´s LISA mission. LISA is a space mission led by ESA with contributions from NASA and many ESA member states. LISA will observe gravitational waves in space with three satellites connected by laser beams forming a constellation in a heliocentric orbit.

Latest news and consortium activities

Date Title Summary
Nov 27, 2013
 Selected: The Gravitational Universe - ESA decided on next Large Mission Concepts Selected: The Gravitational UniverseESA decided on next Large Mission Concepts The...
Sep 01, 2015
 LISA Pathfinder en el camí al llençament El satèl·lit s'ha acabat LISA Pathfinder (LPF), la missió per demostrar les noves...
Jun 30, 2014
 LISA Pathfinder on the cover of top popular German astronomy magazine
Jun 07, 2016
 Results show LISA Pathfinder exceeds expectations The ESA satellite mission LISA Pathfinder has successfully demonstrated the technology...
May 15, 2014
 LISA Pathfinder displayed for the first time at the ILA 2014 Direct detection of gravitational waves in space requires some completely new...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort descending Title
Jun 13, 2005
 Papers Advanced VIRGO: detector optimization for gravitational waves by inspiralling binaries
Jan 24, 2023
 Positions Open positions at the Max Plack Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Hannover, Germany in experimental and instrumental physics
Jan 05, 2024
 Positions Multiple postdoctoral positions available at ICG, Portsmouth
Oct 31, 2013
 Papers The effect of baryonic streaming motions on the formation of the first supermassive black holes
May 26, 2024
 Conferences 16th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors, May 26 -June 1, 2024, La Biodola, Italy
Jan 10, 2024
 Positions Permanent Research Scientist position in GW instrumentation at UCLouvain
Feb 02, 2012
 Papers Low-frequency gravitational wave science with LISA
Positions NASA POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP – APPLICATION DEADLINE MARCH/JULY/NOVEMBER 1
Jul 07, 2024
 Conferences New Frontiers in Strong Gravity, July 7-19 2024, Benasque
Feb 19, 2024
 Conferences SIGRAV International School 2024 - Measuring Gravity, February 19-23 2024
Jun 13, 2005
 Papers Expected Coalescence Rate of Double Neutron Stars for Ground Based Interferometers
Jan 29, 2024
 Conferences Gravity and Cosmology 2024
Jun 12, 2024
 Conferences Dawn VII meeting June 12-13, 2024 at UBC in Vancouver
Mar 27, 2014
 Papers Constraints on Einstein-Æther theory and Horava gravity from binary pulsar observations
Oct 17, 2023
 Positions Faculty Position at Troy University

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External links