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
The LISA Mission Homepage

LISA - observing gravitational waves in space

LISA will be a large-scale space mission designed to detect one of the most elusive phenomena in astronomy - gravitational waves. With LISA we will be able to observe the entire universe directly with gravitational waves, learning about the formation of structure and galaxies, stellar evolution, the early universe, and the structure and nature of spacetime itself.

The LISA Pathfinder Mission successfully paved the way for the LISA mission by demonstrating the key technologies for a large gravitational wave observatory in space. The results show that LISA Pathfinder is working to a precision better than required for LISA. The LISA Pathfinder mission was launched on 3rd December 2015 and ended in July 2017. 

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

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Latest news and consortium activities

Date Title Summary
Sep 11, 2018
 LISA Pathfinder Mission Accomplished Gathering of LISA Pathfinder collaboration, Trento, September 11-13, 2018The LISA...
Mar 26, 2018
 Building the Mission: LISA Consortium Reboot We are now ready to reboot the Consortium and ask you to apply.
Feb 05, 2018
 LISA Pathfinder – the quietest place in space New LISA Pathfinder results exceed requirements for future gravitational-wave observatory...
Jan 25, 2018
 LISA PATHFINDER WINS AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY AWARD ESA's LISA Pathfinder mission has been honoured with the 2017 Space Technology Award of...
Jan 22, 2018
 LISA-missie geslaagd voor review en door naar het volgende ontwikkelingsstadium Voordat een ESA-missie het lanceerplatform bereikt, moet er een aantal...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Image Title
Jan 05, 2024
 Positions Electrical Engineer or Physicist for electronic instrumentation for gravitational wave detectors and space missions at University of Hamburg
Jan 05, 2024
 Positions ERC/UKRI PhD position at Southampton
Dec 15, 2023
 Positions PhD position in Gravitational Waves, Dark Matter, and Quantum Field Theory, London, UK
Dec 12, 2023
 Positions Post-doc positions in experimental gravitational-wave and fundamental physics in Cardiff
Dec 12, 2023
 Positions Assistant Professor Position at the Gravitational Wave Science Project, NAOJ
Dec 07, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral opportunities at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC & IEEC) in Barcelona
Dec 07, 2023
 Positions PhD fellowships within the Framework of the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation Doctoral INPhINIT
Dec 01, 2023
 Positions PhD Studentships at the University of Birmingham
Nov 28, 2023
 Positions Scientific software developer in computational astrophysics at the University of the Balearic Islands, SPAIN
Nov 28, 2023
 Positions Postdocs available at the RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG)
Nov 21, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral position at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Nov 21, 2023
 Positions PostDoc position in Gravitational Wave Physics at Nikhef
Nov 08, 2023
 Positions Postdoc at Precision Interferometry and Fundamental Interactions at AEI Hannover
Nov 07, 2023
 Positions Assistant Professor in Time-Domain Astronomy at University of Florida
Oct 17, 2023
 Positions Faculty Position at Troy University

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