ESA: A unique experiment to explore black holes

What happens when two supermassive black holes collide? Combining the observing power of two future ESA missions, Athena and LISA, would allow us to study these cosmic clashes and their mysterious aftermath for the first time.

The merger of supermassive black holes. © ESA

A high-precision test bench for LISA technology

AEI researchers develop novel precise laboratory setup to verify technology for LISA

AEI Hannover optical bench for test of LISA technology. © D. Penkert/MPI for Gravitational Physics

LISA Mission

Another milestone for LISA

Further investigations confirm LISA Pathfinder's success

The LISA Pathfinder scientific collaboration met in Trento to discuss the scientific results of the mission and their impact on LISA, together with key representatives of the space agencies and industry. © University of Trento

LISA Pathfinder – the quietest place in space

New LISA Pathfinder results exceed requirements for future gravitational-wave observatory LISA by far

LISA Pathfinder final mission results. © ESA

LISA mission passes review successfully and begins next stage of development

The future space-based gravitational wave observatory, LISA, has recently passed its Mission Definition Review (MDR) with flying colours.

A Satellite of the LISA-Mission. © AEI/MM/exozet; GW simulation: NASA/C. Henze

Good Night, LISA Pathfinder!

LISA Pathfinder has been switched off as planned on the evening of 18th of July, ending its successful mission which surpassed all expectations

LISA Pathfinder has demonstrated core elements of a spaceborne gravitational-wave observatory. © ESA–C.Carreau

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 & LISA Pathfinder

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 proposal for the L3 mission slot was accepted by ESA in June 2017 and the mission is currently in the first planning stages.

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.

A new frontier for exploring the physical universe

Good night, LISA Pathfinder

LISA Pathfinder has been switched off as planned on the evening of 18th of July, ending its successful mission which surpassed all expectations.

After 16 months of science measurements an international team deactivated the LISA Pathfinder satellite on the evening of the 18th of July 2017. The gravitational-wave laboratory in space powered down after receiving the last commands in the evening and circles the Sun on a safe parking orbit. LISA Pathfinder has tested key technologies for LISA, the future gravitational-wave observatory in space, and has demonstrated their operative readiness. LISA is scheduled to launch into space in 2034 as an ESA mission and will “listen” to the entire Universe by measuring low-frequency gravitational waves.

Latest news and consortium activities

Date Title Summary
Jun 30, 2014
 LISA Pathfinder on the cover of top popular German astronomy magazine
Jun 29, 2014
 How do Gravitational Waves look like? David Radice wins Giulio Rampa Thesis Prize The 2014 Giulio Rampa Thesis Prize for outstanding research in Mathematical or Numerical...
Sep 11, 2018
 LISA Pathfinder Mission Accomplished Gathering of LISA Pathfinder collaboration, Trento, September 11-13, 2018The LISA...
Nov 13, 2011
 LISA Pathfinder takes major step in hunt for gravitational waves Sensors destined for ESA's LISA Pathfinder mission in 2014 have exceeded expectations in...
May 24, 2012
 Getting ready for next time: European gravitational wave community strengthens space collaboration The LISA mission was reported to have been unanimously ranked first by ESA´s scientific...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topicsort descending Image Title
Jul 10, 2019
 Conferences Astroparticle Physics and GWs at EPS-HEP Conference Jul 10-17, 2019 Ghent, Belgium
Aug 25, 2019
 Conferences Tal Alexander Meeting in Alájar, Spain from Aug 25 - Sep 4 2019
Conferences Hyperspace@AEI
Jun 24, 2019
 Conferences Astroinformatics 2019, June 24-27 in Pasadena
Sep 23, 2019
 Conferences Kavli RISE Summer School on GW Sep 23-27 2019
Jun 10, 2019
 Conferences Summer School on Super-Computing and Distributed Systems, SC-Camp 2019, June 10-14, Madrid, Spain
May 21, 2019
 Conferences International School on Gravity from Earth to Space - Urbino
Jun 24, 2019
 Conferences IGC@25: Multimessenger Universe June 24-27, 2019 at Penn State, USA
Jul 07, 2019
 Conferences GR22 and Amaldi13 in Valencia, Spain, JULY 7-12, 2019
Sep 09, 2019
 Conferences TAUP2019, Sep 9-13 2019 Toyama, Japan
Jun 03, 2019
 Conferences Gravitational Wave Challenges and Cosmology Workshop, June 3-14 2019, Rio Grade do Norte, Brazil
Jul 15, 2019
 Conferences Advancing Theoretical Astrophysics Summer School, July 15 – 26, 2019, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
May 26, 2019
 Conferences Dawn V Meeting on Global Strategies for GW Astronomy
Jun 10, 2019
 Conferences MLSE Conference at Georgia Tech June 10-12 2019 at Georgia Tech
Jun 09, 2019
 Conferences Bard Summer School on Quantum Gravity, 9-16 June 2019

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