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
Sep 01, 2015
 LISA Pathfinder on the way to launch The satellite is completed LISA Pathfinder (LPF), the test mission to demonstrate new...
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...
Oct 08, 2015
 LISA Pathfinder arrives at Launch Site in Kourou, French Guiana LPF arrives safely at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.
Dec 03, 2015
 LISA Pathfinder launches successfully on 3 Dec 2015 LISA Pathfinder lifted off on Ariane Spaceflight VV06 atop the sixth Vega rocket on 3...
Jan 13, 2016
 Laser light for LISA Pathfinder Since December 3, 2015, LISA Pathfinder is in space and still on the way to its target...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topicsort descending Image Title
Jan 17, 2023
 Positions Scientific Programmer Position at the AEI in Potsdam
Mar 14, 2023
 Positions Assistant/Associate Professor of Astrophysics at University of Birmingham
Positions New Gravitational Wave Physics MSc at Cardiff University
Mar 24, 2023
 Positions Lectureship in Gravity at University of Southampton
Mar 14, 2023
 Positions Chaire de professeur junior position at the ARTEMIS Laboratory
Positions PhD or Masters by Research positions – University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Feb 07, 2023
 Positions Notre Dame Postdoc Positions available, University of Notre Dame’s Society of Science Fellows
Mar 24, 2023
 Positions Lecturer positions in Physics at Royal Holloway, University of London
May 04, 2011
 Papers Fourth order indirect integration method for black hole perturbations: even modes
Sep 14, 2014
 Papers From Boltzmann equations to steady wall velocities
Apr 27, 2014
 Papers Environmental Effects for Gravitational-wave Astrophysics
Jan 18, 2013
 Papers On the complementarity of pulsar timing and space laser interferometry for the individual detection of supermassive black hole binaries
Sep 26, 2016
 Papers The effect of matter structure on the gravitational waveform
Jan 06, 2012
 Papers LISA: Astrophysics and cosmology in the millihertz regime
May 15, 2014
 Papers Self-force driven motion in curved spacetimes

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