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 22, 2018
 Nach erfolgreicher Überprüfung beginnt für die LISA-Mission die nächste Entwicklungsstufe Bevor eine ESA-Mission zum Start rollen kann, muss sie eine Reihe von Prüfverfahren...
Jan 22, 2018
 LISA-missie geslaagd voor review en door naar het volgende ontwikkelingsstadium Voordat een ESA-missie het lanceerplatform bereikt, moet er een aantal...
Jul 19, 2017
 Good Night, LISA Pathfinder! LISA Pathfinder has been switched off as planned on the evening of 18thof July, ending...
Apr 17, 2017
 NASA Team Explores Using LISA Pathfinder as a 'Comet Crumb' Detector LISA Pathfinder, a mission led by the European Space Agency (ESA) with contributions from...
Nov 16, 2016
 NASA Microthrusters Achieve Success on ESA's LISA Pathfinder A next-generation technology demonstration mission has just passed a big milestone.

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort ascending Title
May 27, 2024
 Conferences GWPAW 2024 - May 27-31 in Tel Aviv
Oct 19, 2023
 Positions PhD positions in “Gravity & Matter at the Extreme” at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam
Nov 30, 2023
 Positions Permanent position Research Engineer (CNRS Mobility)
Mar 28, 2017
 Papers Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. V: Extreme mass-ratio inspirals
Sep 22, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions in Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astrophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam
Nov 02, 2023
 Positions Postdoc position at IGFAE, Santiago de Compostela
Jun 13, 2005
 Papers Advanced VIRGO: detector optimization for gravitational waves by inspiralling binaries
Jan 03, 2023
 Positions PhD positions in “Precision Interferometry and Fundamental Interactions” at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, AEI Hannover
Oct 06, 2023
 Positions Postdoc in black-hole physics at the University of Haifa
Nov 21, 2023
 Positions Postdoc position at University of Western Australia
Oct 31, 2013
 Papers The effect of baryonic streaming motions on the formation of the first supermassive black holes
May 12, 2024
 Conferences GWADW 2024, May 12-18, Australia
Oct 21, 2024
 Conferences COSMO'24, October 21-24 at Kyoto University
Nov 30, 2023
 Positions Postdoc in Gravitational Wave Data Analysis in Utrecht
Feb 02, 2012
 Papers Low-frequency gravitational wave science with LISA

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