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
Jan 13, 2016
 Laserlicht für LISA Pathfinder Erste Systeme der wissenschaftlichen Nutzlast erfolgreich eingeschaltet und getestet
Jan 22, 2016
 LISA Pathfinder arrives at Lagrange Point 1! After a six-week journey, LISA Pathfinder arrived at its destination today, an orbit...
Feb 16, 2016
 Both LISA Pathfinder test masses released successfully! Test cubes floating freely inside LISA PathfinderESA’s LISA Pathfinder has released both...
Feb 11, 2016
 Gravitational waves observed for first time ever! LIGO Opens New Window on the Universe with Observation of Gravitational Waves from...
Mar 08, 2016
 LISA Pathfinder begins its science mission After completing a long series of tests on the spacecraft and payload, the ESA mission...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topicsort descending Image Title
Oct 11, 2016
 Papers Distinguishing between formation channels for binary black holes with LISA
Papers Perturbation method in the assessment of radiation reaction in the capture of stars by black holes
Apr 30, 2009
 Papers Assembly of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshifts
Mar 21, 2017
 Papers Reconstructing the dark sector interaction with LISA
Dec 11, 2004
 Papers Brans-Dicke gravity and the capture of stars by black holes: some asymptotic results
Sep 30, 2012
 Papers X-ray emission from high-redshift miniquasars: self-regulating the population of massive black holes through global warming
Mar 28, 2017
 Papers Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. V: Extreme mass-ratio inspirals
Jun 13, 2005
 Papers Advanced VIRGO: detector optimization for gravitational waves by inspiralling binaries
Oct 31, 2013
 Papers The effect of baryonic streaming motions on the formation of the first supermassive black holes
Feb 02, 2012
 Papers Low-frequency gravitational wave science with LISA
Jun 13, 2005
 Papers Expected Coalescence Rate of Double Neutron Stars for Ground Based Interferometers
Mar 27, 2014
 Papers Constraints on Einstein-Æther theory and Horava gravity from binary pulsar observations
Aug 11, 2012
 Papers Breadboard model of the LISA phasemeter
Oct 25, 2005
 Papers Expected coalescence rates of NS-NS binaries for laser beam interferometers
Apr 29, 2014
 Papers Strong Binary Pulsar Constraints on Lorentz Violation in Gravity

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