Dead Stars Found Whipping Around Each Other in Minutes

Two dead stars have been spotted whipping around each other every seven minutes.

The newfound dynamic duo, officially known as ZTF J1539+5027, is the second fastest pair of orbiting dead stars, called white dwarfs, found to date. Artwork Jorge Lugo

Discovering exoplanets with gravitational waves

Researchers suggest how LISA can detect exoplanets orbiting white dwarf binaries everywhere in our Milky Way and in the nearby Magellanic Clouds.

Artistic representation of gravitational waves produced by a compact binary white dwarf system with a jovian mass planetary companion. © Artwork by Simonluca Definis

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 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
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...
Apr 04, 2017
 The LISA Consortium mourns Pierre Binetruy Pierre was one of the greatest scientists in the LISA community, an overwhelming driving...
Dec 13, 2016
 LISA Pathfinder's pioneering mission continues: Mission gets a six month extension On 7 December, LISA Pathfinder started the extended phase of its mission, an additional...
Jul 13, 2017
 LISA Pathfinder: Bake, rattle and roll The final days of the LISA Pathfinder mission are some of the busiest, as controllers...
Nov 30, 2016
 Advanced LIGO detectors begin 2nd observation run AEI researchers expect new discoveries from LIGO instruments On Wednesday, 30 November,...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort ascending Title
Papers Perturbation method in the assessment of radiation reaction in the capture of stars by black holes
Jul 19, 2020
 Conferences LISA Symposium 2020, Glasgow
Oct 15, 2019
 Positions Four-year Postdoctoral Position in Scattering Amplitudes and Gravitational Waves at AEI and UCLA
Apr 30, 2009
 Papers Assembly of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshifts
Sep 16, 2019
 Positions Postdoctoral Research Position in Numerical Relativity and Computational Astrophysics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Mar 21, 2017
 Papers Reconstructing the dark sector interaction with LISA
Sep 27, 2019
 Positions Postdoc Positions at IUCAA, Pune
Dec 11, 2004
 Papers Brans-Dicke gravity and the capture of stars by black holes: some asymptotic results
Oct 14, 2019
 Conferences WorkShop Announcement: Challenges & Opportunities of High Frequency GW Detection
Sep 30, 2012
 Papers X-ray emission from high-redshift miniquasars: self-regulating the population of massive black holes through global warming
Sep 20, 2019
 Positions Postdoctoral Fellowships in Gravitational Theory at Princeton
Feb 02, 2012
 Papers Low-frequency gravitational wave science with LISA
Mar 28, 2017
 Papers Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. V: Extreme mass-ratio inspirals
Sep 27, 2019
 Positions Assistant Professor of Physics Position at Cal State Fullerton
Jun 13, 2005
 Papers Advanced VIRGO: detector optimization for gravitational waves by inspiralling binaries

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