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
The LISA Mission Homepage

LISA - observing gravitational waves in space

LISA will be a large-scale space mission designed to detect one of the most elusive phenomena in astronomy - gravitational waves. With LISA we will be able to observe the entire universe directly with gravitational waves, learning about the formation of structure and galaxies, stellar evolution, the early universe, and the structure and nature of spacetime itself.

The LISA Pathfinder Mission successfully paved the way for the LISA mission by demonstrating the key technologies for a large gravitational wave observatory in space. The results show that LISA Pathfinder is working to a precision better than required for LISA. The LISA Pathfinder mission was launched on 3rd December 2015 and ended in July 2017. 

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
May 25, 2016
 First LPF results will be presented on June 7th in Madrid and Hannover First results from ESA’s LISA Pathfinder mission, a technology demonstrator for the...
Nov 27, 2013
 Selected: The Gravitational Universe - ESA decided on next Large Mission Concepts Selected: The Gravitational UniverseESA decided on next Large Mission Concepts The...
Sep 01, 2015
 LISA Pathfinder en el camí al llençament El satèl·lit s'ha acabat LISA Pathfinder (LPF), la missió per demostrar les noves...
Jun 30, 2014
 LISA Pathfinder on the cover of top popular German astronomy magazine
Jun 07, 2016
 Results show LISA Pathfinder exceeds expectations The ESA satellite mission LISA Pathfinder has successfully demonstrated the technology...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort descending Title
Sep 12, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Associate Positions in Theoretical Astronomy & Astrophysics at CIERA, Northwestern University
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
Aug 22, 2023
 Positions Postdoc Position Theoretical Multi-Messenger Astrophysics at University of Hamburg
Sep 19, 2023
 Positions IAIFI Postdoctoral Fellowship (Physics and AI) at MIT
Sep 30, 2012
 Papers X-ray emission from high-redshift miniquasars: self-regulating the population of massive black holes through global warming
Apr 26, 2023
 Positions Flight Software Engineer (m/f/d) “Scientific Instrumentation for Space Applications” at AEI
Dec 11, 2023
 Conferences Future Perspectives on Primordial Black Holes, December 11-13 2023, Rome
Mar 28, 2017
 Papers Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. V: Extreme mass-ratio inspirals
Jul 25, 2023
 Positions Post-doctoral Researcher Position at Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Sep 12, 2023
 Positions PhD position in Gravitational Wave Follow-up at LMU Munich
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 04, 2023
 Conferences 2023 Lunar GW Workshop: Merging Lunar Exploration with Multi-Messenger Revolution, October 4-6 2023, Nashville
Sep 19, 2023
 Positions Postdoc position in computational relativistic astrophysics and numerical relativity at Caltech

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