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
Jan 09, 2017
 The AEI mourns a gravitational-wave research pioneer Prof. Dr. Heinz Billing dies on 4 January 2017 at the age of 102 - Obituary
Jan 13, 2017
 The L3 LISA Mission proposal was submitted today! LISA Mission L3 Proposal submitted to ESA
Oct 25, 2016
 Next step towards a gravitational-wave observatory in space ESA has invited European scientists to propose concepts for the third large mission in...
Oct 07, 2016
 The LISA Pathfinder Science Archive is online Today, ESA's LISA Pathfinder Science Archive opens its virtual gates to the world. It...
Jan 22, 2018
 LISA mission passes review successfully and begins next stage of development Before an ESA mission reaches the launch pad, it has to go through a number of approval...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort ascending Title
Dec 06, 2022
 Positions PhD and postdoctoral positions in Continuous Gravitational Wave research at AEI Hannover
May 26, 2024
 Conferences 16th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors, May 26 -June 1, 2024, La Biodola, Italy
Nov 21, 2023
 Positions Tenure Track Position in Multimessenger and Gravitational Wave Astronomy at Oregon State University
Apr 30, 2009
 Papers Assembly of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshifts
Dec 06, 2023
 Conferences 10th International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology: New Horizons and Singularities in Gravity, Dec 6-9 2023 in India
Oct 19, 2023
 Positions Three Postdoctoral Positions in astroparticle physics at INFN and Turin U
Jul 07, 2024
 Conferences New Frontiers in Strong Gravity, July 7-19 2024, Benasque
Mar 21, 2017
 Papers Reconstructing the dark sector interaction with LISA
Sep 14, 2023
 Positions Open call for Postdoctoral Fellowships at ICE-CSIC in Barcelona
Nov 02, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral and scientific software developer positions in gravitational wave physics, Palma, Spain
Dec 11, 2004
 Papers Brans-Dicke gravity and the capture of stars by black holes: some asymptotic results
Positions PhD positions available at the UWA Gravitational-Wave Astronomy Group
Dec 15, 2023
 Conferences Fundamental Physics at the Galactic Centre Workshop, December 15&18 2023, Porto
Nov 21, 2023
 Positions PostDoc position in Gravitational Wave Physics at Nikhef
Sep 30, 2012
 Papers X-ray emission from high-redshift miniquasars: self-regulating the population of massive black holes through global warming

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