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

LPF Mission

Lancement prévu pour Decembre 2015

En route pour eLISA avec LISA Pathfinder

Vacuum integrity test of LPF. Credit: Astrium Ltd (an EADS company)

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

New movie: LISA, the first gravitational wave observatory in space

On the occasion of the 236th meeting of the American Astronomical Society the LISA Consortium launched a new movie about ESA´s LISA mission. LISA is a space mission led by ESA with contributions from NASA and many ESA member states. LISA will observe gravitational waves in space with three satellites connected by laser beams forming a constellation in a heliocentric orbit.

Latest news and consortium activities

Date Title Summary
May 23, 2013
 ESA’s next large mission: LISA white paper submitted We have come remarkably far using light of different spectrums as our tool for observing...
Aug 15, 2016
 U.S. National Academies Report recommends NASA restore support for LISA New Worlds New Horizons: A Midterm Assessment – the National Academies released their...
Sep 01, 2020
 The 13th International LISA Symposium September 1-3, 2020 The 13th International LISA Symposium featured a program dedicated to gravitational wave...
Jan 16, 2015
 ESA announces LISA Pathfinder launch for September 2015 In the first press release of 2015, ESA today announced the September launch window of...
May 20, 2013
 LPF scheduled for launch in 2015 The LISA consortium strongly supports ESA's LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission, whose launch...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort descending Title
Sep 26, 2016
 Papers The effect of matter structure on the gravitational waveform
Jun 20, 2023
 Positions PhD Position in “Novel Phase Extraction Algorithms for Laser Interferometric Inertial Sensors based on Deep Frequency Modulation Interferometry” at AEI
Sep 12, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Associate Positions in Theoretical Astronomy & Astrophysics at CIERA, Northwestern University
Jan 06, 2012
 Papers LISA: Astrophysics and cosmology in the millihertz regime
Positions Fellowships at the Nottingham Centre of Gravity
Aug 16, 2023
 Positions Assistant Professor at Department of Physics, University of Chicago
Sep 19, 2023
 Positions IAIFI Postdoctoral Fellowship (Physics and AI) at MIT
May 15, 2014
 Papers Self-force driven motion in curved spacetimes
Feb 24, 2023
 Positions Flight Software Engineer (m/f/d) "Scientific Instrumentation for Space Applications"
Sep 05, 2023
 Positions PhD positions at the International Helmholtz-Weizmann Research School on Multimessenger Astronomy
Sep 28, 2023
 Positions Grant 2year postdoc position for ET: Precision polarimetry for the development of third generation gravitational interferometers
Oct 12, 2016
 Papers Gravitational waves at interferometer scales and primordial black holes in axion inflation
Dec 06, 2023
 Conferences 10th International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology: New Horizons and Singularities in Gravity, Dec 6-9 2023 in India
Sep 12, 2023
 Positions PhD position in Gravitational Wave Follow-up at LMU Munich
May 03, 2010
 Papers Free fall and self-force: an historical perspective

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External links