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
Jan 22, 2018
 Nach erfolgreicher Überprüfung beginnt für die LISA-Mission die nächste Entwicklungsstufe Bevor eine ESA-Mission zum Start rollen kann, muss sie eine Reihe von Prüfverfahren...
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...
Oct 16, 2017
 GW170817 - The first observation of gravitational-waves from a binary neutron star inspiral In a milestone for multimessenger astronomy, scientists have directly detected...
Oct 03, 2017
 Nobel Prize 2017 in Physics for Gravitational Waves Rainer Weiss, Kip S. Thorne and Barry C. Barish of the LIGO/VIRGO Collaboration receive...
Jul 19, 2017
 Good Night, LISA Pathfinder! LISA Pathfinder has been switched off as planned on the evening of 18thof July, ending...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Image Title
Oct 13, 2023
 Positions Postdoc in astroparticle physics at SISSA in Trieste
Oct 12, 2023
 Positions PTA postdoctoral position at Vanderbilt University
Oct 11, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral fellowship at the National University of Singapore
Oct 06, 2023
 Positions Postdoc in black-hole physics at the University of Haifa
Oct 05, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Openings in Theoretical Astroparticle and Particle Physics at SISSA
Oct 05, 2023
 Positions Head of LISA Performance and Operations Team at AEI Hannover
Oct 04, 2023
 Positions PhD call at UMassD and URI
Oct 04, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral position at the University of Minnesota
Sep 29, 2023
 Positions 3 Year LISA focused Postdoctoral Position in Montana
Sep 26, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Fellowships in Gravitational Wave Physics and Multi-Messenger Astronomy at the Niels Bohr Institute
Sep 22, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions in Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astrophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam
Sep 14, 2023
 Positions Open call for Postdoctoral Fellowships at ICE-CSIC in Barcelona
Sep 12, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions in Computational Relativistic Astrophysics division at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam
Sep 06, 2023
 Positions Post Doctoral Associate at University of Florida
Apr 26, 2023
 Positions Flight Software Engineer (m/f/d) “Scientific Instrumentation for Space Applications” at AEI

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