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

LPF Mission

Lancement prévu pour Decembre 2015

En route pour eLISA avec LISA Pathfinder

Vacuum integrity test of LPF. Credit: Astrium Ltd (an EADS company)

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

New movie: LISA, the first gravitational wave observatory in space

On the occasion of the 236th meeting of the American Astronomical Society the LISA Consortium launched a new movie about ESA´s LISA mission. LISA is a space mission led by ESA with contributions from NASA and many ESA member states. LISA will observe gravitational waves in space with three satellites connected by laser beams forming a constellation in a heliocentric orbit.

Latest news and consortium activities

Date Title Summary
Jun 30, 2014
 LISA Pathfinder on the cover of top popular German astronomy magazine
Jun 29, 2014
 How do Gravitational Waves look like? David Radice wins Giulio Rampa Thesis Prize The 2014 Giulio Rampa Thesis Prize for outstanding research in Mathematical or Numerical...
Sep 11, 2018
 LISA Pathfinder Mission Accomplished Gathering of LISA Pathfinder collaboration, Trento, September 11-13, 2018The LISA...
Nov 13, 2011
 LISA Pathfinder takes major step in hunt for gravitational waves Sensors destined for ESA's LISA Pathfinder mission in 2014 have exceeded expectations in...
May 24, 2012
 Getting ready for next time: European gravitational wave community strengthens space collaboration The LISA mission was reported to have been unanimously ranked first by ESA´s scientific...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topicsort descending Image Title
Dec 11, 2023
 Conferences 32nd Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics, December 11-15 2023 in Shanghai
Dec 02, 2023
 Conferences Intermediate-Mass Black Holes: The dawn of a revolutionary era, December 2-5 2023, San Pedro, Belize
May 20, 2024
 Conferences First Stars VII, May 20-23, 2024, New York
Jul 01, 2024
 Conferences New horizons for Psi school & workshop, July 1-5 2024, IST Lisbon
Dec 11, 2023
 Conferences Future Perspectives on Primordial Black Holes, December 11-13 2023, Rome
Jan 29, 2024
 Conferences Gravity and Cosmology 2024
Jul 07, 2024
 Conferences New Frontiers in Strong Gravity, July 7-19 2024, Benasque
Aug 26, 2024
 Conferences Black Holes Inside and Out, August 26-30 2024, Copenhagen
May 26, 2024
 Conferences 16th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors, May 26 -June 1, 2024, La Biodola, Italy
Dec 15, 2023
 Conferences Fundamental Physics at the Galactic Centre Workshop, December 15&18 2023, Porto
Dec 04, 2023
 Conferences Ultra-high frequency gravitational waves: where to next? Dezember 4-8 at CERN
Oct 21, 2024
 Conferences COSMO'24, October 21-24 at Kyoto University
Jun 17, 2024
 Conferences 27th Capra Meeting on Radiation Reaction in General Relativity, June 17-21 2024, Singapore
Feb 12, 2024
 Conferences Bottom-Up Cross-Cutting Workshop “JENAS Initiative: Gravitational Wave Probes of Fundamental Physics”, February 12-16 2024, Rome
Dec 06, 2023
 Conferences 10th International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology: New Horizons and Singularities in Gravity, Dec 6-9 2023 in India

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External links