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
Jun 07, 2016
 Replay Livestream of LISA Pathfinder Press Conference You can watch a replay of the live stream of the LISA Pathfinder press conference in...
Jun 07, 2016
 Results show LISA Pathfinder exceeds expectations The ESA satellite mission LISA Pathfinder has successfully demonstrated the technology...
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...
Apr 18, 2016
 No showstoppers: GOAT reports on space-based gravitational wave observatory In the final report now delivered to ESA, the Gravitational Observatory Advisory Team...
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 topic Image Title
Papers LISA Brown Bag & GW Notes
Positions New Gravitational Wave Physics MSc at Cardiff University
Positions PhD positions available at the UWA Gravitational-Wave Astronomy Group
Positions Positions in Quantum-Nanometrology within the QuantumFrontiers Excellence Cluster
Positions PhD or Masters by Research positions – University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Positions NASA POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP – APPLICATION DEADLINE MARCH/JULY/NOVEMBER 1
Positions PhD Scholarships – Statistics and Gravitational Wave Science for LISA, New Zealand

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