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
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
Nov 17, 2016
 Papers A Second Higgs Doublet in the Early Universe: Baryogenesis and Gravitational Waves
Sep 12, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions in Computational Relativistic Astrophysics division at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam
Oct 26, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions and PhD position in gravitational wave physics at GRAPPA, the University of Amsterdam
May 11, 2000
 Papers Fast and Accurate Computation Tools for Gravitational Waveforms from Binary Systems with any Orbital Eccentricity
Positions PhD Scholarships – Statistics and Gravitational Wave Science for LISA, New Zealand
Oct 05, 2023
 Positions Head of LISA Performance and Operations Team at AEI Hannover
Nov 21, 2023
 Positions Faculty Position in Theoretical Gravitational Physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Apr 24, 2014
 Papers Data Analysis Methods for Testing Alternative Theories of Gravity with LISA Pathfinder
Feb 12, 2024
 Conferences Bottom-Up Cross-Cutting Workshop “JENAS Initiative: Gravitational Wave Probes of Fundamental Physics”, February 12-16 2024, Rome
Oct 19, 2023
 Positions Tenure-track faculty position in astrophysics at University of Rochester
Nov 28, 2023
 Positions Postdocs available at the RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG)
Oct 11, 2016
 Papers Distinguishing between formation channels for binary black holes with LISA
Jun 17, 2024
 Conferences 27th Capra Meeting on Radiation Reaction in General Relativity, June 17-21 2024, Singapore
Nov 01, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Positions at the RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation
Papers Perturbation method in the assessment of radiation reaction in the capture of stars by black holes

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