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

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

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Latest news and consortium activities

Date Title Summary
Sep 11, 2018
 LISA Pathfinder Mission Accomplished Gathering of LISA Pathfinder collaboration, Trento, September 11-13, 2018The LISA...
Mar 26, 2018
 Building the Mission: LISA Consortium Reboot We are now ready to reboot the Consortium and ask you to apply.
Feb 05, 2018
 LISA Pathfinder – the quietest place in space New LISA Pathfinder results exceed requirements for future gravitational-wave observatory...
Jan 25, 2018
 LISA PATHFINDER WINS AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY AWARD ESA's LISA Pathfinder mission has been honoured with the 2017 Space Technology Award of...
Jan 22, 2018
 LISA mission passes review successfully and begins next stage of development Before an ESA mission reaches the launch pad, it has to go through a number of approval...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Image Title
Nov 08, 2023
 Positions Project Manager (m/f/d) for the Interferometric Detection System (IDS) of LISA at AEI Hannover
Nov 08, 2023
 Positions Postdoc at Precision Interferometry and Fundamental Interactions at AEI Hannover
Nov 07, 2023
 Positions Postdoc position at UTRGV in Brownsville
Nov 07, 2023
 Positions Faculty position at University of South Carolina
Nov 07, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions at Penn State
Nov 07, 2023
 Positions Assistant Professor in Time-Domain Astronomy at University of Florida
Nov 02, 2023
 Positions Postdoc position at IGFAE, Santiago de Compostela
Nov 02, 2023
 Positions Faculty Positions in astronomy and gw-astronomy at Texas Tech Lubbock
Nov 02, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral and scientific software developer positions in gravitational wave physics, Palma, Spain
Nov 01, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Positions at the RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation
Oct 26, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions and PhD position in gravitational wave physics at GRAPPA, the University of Amsterdam
Oct 26, 2023
 Positions Postdoc positions at CPT Marseille
Oct 25, 2023
 Positions Assistant Professor in Experimental Gravitational Wave at University of Florida
Oct 25, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Positions in Theoretical Particle Physics, Theoretical Cosmology/Gravitation at IFAE
Oct 24, 2023
 Positions Scheduler for LISA instruments at Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics

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