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
Feb 28, 2019
 A high-precision test bench for LISA technology AEI researchers develop novel precise laboratory setup to verify technology for LISA, the...
Sep 14, 2018
 Another milestone for LISA: Further investigations confirm LISA Pathfinder's success Latest investigations confirmed that LISA Pathfinder has demonstrated the feasibility of...
Sep 11, 2018
 LISA Pathfinder Mission Accomplished Gathering of LISA Pathfinder collaboration, Trento, September 11-13, 2018The LISA...
Feb 05, 2018
 LISA Pathfinder – the quietest place in space New LISA Pathfinder results exceed requirements for future gravitational-wave observatory...
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...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort ascending Title
May 15, 2014
 Papers Self-force driven motion in curved spacetimes
Apr 26, 2023
 Positions Flight Software Engineer (m/f/d) “Scientific Instrumentation for Space Applications” at AEI
Oct 17, 2023
 Positions Research Expert in gravitational wave simulation & data analysis for LISA
Nov 28, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions on GW physics at TianQin
Oct 12, 2016
 Papers Gravitational waves at interferometer scales and primordial black holes in axion inflation
Sep 06, 2023
 Positions Post Doctoral Associate at University of Florida
Oct 26, 2023
 Positions Postdoc positions at CPT Marseille
May 03, 2010
 Papers Free fall and self-force: an historical perspective
Positions Positions in Quantum-Nanometrology within the QuantumFrontiers Excellence Cluster
Oct 05, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Openings in Theoretical Astroparticle and Particle Physics at SISSA
Nov 08, 2023
 Positions Project Manager (m/f/d) for the Interferometric Detection System (IDS) of LISA at AEI Hannover
Jul 20, 2014
 Papers A fully relativistic radial fall
Dec 04, 2023
 Conferences Ultra-high frequency gravitational waves: where to next? Dezember 4-8 at CERN
May 20, 2024
 Conferences First Stars VII, May 20-23, 2024, New York
Nov 28, 2023
 Positions Permanent AI/computing facilitator position at URI

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