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
Jan 06, 2012
 Papers LISA: Astrophysics and cosmology in the millihertz regime
Positions Fellowships at the Nottingham Centre of Gravity
Jul 19, 2023
 Conferences Data analysis challenges for stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds 19-21 July 2023 at CERN
May 15, 2014
 Papers Self-force driven motion in curved spacetimes
Jul 10, 2023
 Conferences Gravitational-wave populations: what's next? July 10-14 2023 at University of Milano-Bicocca
Apr 26, 2023
 Positions Geotechnical Civil Engineer for the Einstein Telescope at Nikhef
Oct 12, 2016
 Papers Gravitational waves at interferometer scales and primordial black holes in axion inflation
Aug 14, 2023
 Conferences Gravitational Waves meet Amplitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, August 14 – September 1, 2023, ICTP-SAIFR, São Paulo
May 16, 2023
 Positions Product Owner (m/f/d) “Phasemeter for LISA” at AEI
May 03, 2010
 Papers Free fall and self-force: an historical perspective
Positions Positions in Quantum-Nanometrology within the QuantumFrontiers Excellence Cluster
Jun 05, 2023
 Conferences 1st Trieste meeting on the physics of gravitational waves, June 5-9 2023 at SISSA
Jul 20, 2014
 Papers A fully relativistic radial fall
May 21, 2023
 Conferences GWADW 2023, May 21-27, La Biodola (Elba)
Apr 26, 2023
 Positions System Engineer for the Einstein Telescope at Nikhef

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