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 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...
Oct 16, 2017
 GW170817 - The first observation of gravitational-waves from a binary neutron star inspiral In a milestone for multimessenger astronomy, scientists have directly detected...
Oct 03, 2017
 Nobel Prize 2017 in Physics for Gravitational Waves Rainer Weiss, Kip S. Thorne and Barry C. Barish of the LIGO/VIRGO Collaboration receive...
Jul 19, 2017
 Good Night, LISA Pathfinder! LISA Pathfinder has been switched off as planned on the evening of 18thof July, ending...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Image Title
Oct 17, 2023
 Positions Faculty Position at Troy University
Oct 13, 2023
 Positions Postdoc in astroparticle physics at SISSA in Trieste
Oct 13, 2023
 Positions Postdoc Positions IFPU APC INAF in Trieste
Oct 12, 2023
 Positions PTA postdoctoral position at Vanderbilt University
Oct 12, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Fellowship in Theoretical and Gravitational Wave Astrophysics in Copenhagen
Oct 11, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral fellowship at the National University of Singapore
Oct 06, 2023
 Positions Postdoc in black-hole physics at the University of Haifa
Oct 05, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Openings in Theoretical Astroparticle and Particle Physics at SISSA
Oct 05, 2023
 Positions Assistant Professorship in Theoretical and Gravitational Wave Astrophysics at Niels Bohr Institute
Oct 05, 2023
 Positions Head of LISA Performance and Operations Team at AEI Hannover
Oct 04, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Fellowships in Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University
Oct 04, 2023
 Positions PhD call at UMassD and URI
Oct 04, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral position at the University of Minnesota
Sep 29, 2023
 Positions 3 Year LISA focused Postdoctoral Position in Montana
Sep 26, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Fellowships in Gravitational Wave Physics and Multi-Messenger Astronomy at the Niels Bohr Institute

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