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

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

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Latest news and consortium activities

Date Title Summary
Sep 12, 2019
 2020 New Horizons in Physics Prize for Samaya Nissanke The LISA Consortium congratulates science team member Dr. Samaya Nissanke, assistant...
Jul 26, 2019
 Dead Stars Found Whipping Around Each Other in Minutes Two dead stars have been spotted whipping around each other every seven minutes. The rare...
Jul 08, 2019
 Discovering exoplanets with gravitational waves In a recent paper in Nature Astronomy, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for...
May 23, 2019
 ESA: A unique experiment to explore black holes What happens when two supermassive black holes collide? Combining the observing power of...
Apr 18, 2019
 Public talk / live stream: The Gravitational Wave Astronomical Revolution - Dr. David Reitze As part of the 4th LISA Consortium Meeting, Dr. David Reitze will give a public talk on...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort ascending Title
Positions Positions in Quantum-Nanometrology within the QuantumFrontiers Excellence Cluster
Oct 26, 2023
 Conferences ET-PP/ET-EIB workshop: Computing and Data Requirements, October 26-27 2023, Geneva
Sep 19, 2023
 Positions Postdoc position in computational relativistic astrophysics and numerical relativity at Caltech
Jul 20, 2014
 Papers A fully relativistic radial fall
Sep 25, 2023
 Conferences Kavli-Villum Summer School on Gravitational Waves, 25-30 Sep 2023, Corfu, Greece
Sep 05, 2023
 Positions EXP Fellowships in Experimental Physics and Astrophysics at Caltech
Sep 29, 2023
 Positions Data Analysis Postdoctoral position at the LIGO Laboratory
Nov 17, 2016
 Papers A Second Higgs Doublet in the Early Universe: Baryogenesis and Gravitational Waves
Oct 01, 2023
 Conferences Astroinformatics 2023, October 1-6 2023, Naples
Sep 12, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions in Computational Relativistic Astrophysics division at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam
May 11, 2000
 Papers Fast and Accurate Computation Tools for Gravitational Waveforms from Binary Systems with any Orbital Eccentricity
Positions PhD Scholarships – Statistics and Gravitational Wave Science for LISA, New Zealand
May 12, 2024
 Conferences GWADW 2024, May 12-18, Australia
Sep 19, 2023
 Positions Postdoc positions in gravitational-wave astronomy at Milano-Bicocca
Apr 24, 2014
 Papers Data Analysis Methods for Testing Alternative Theories of Gravity with LISA Pathfinder

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