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 en el camí al llençament El satèl·lit s'ha acabat LISA Pathfinder (LPF), la missió per demostrar les noves...
Jun 30, 2014
 LISA Pathfinder on the cover of top popular German astronomy magazine
Jun 07, 2016
 Results show LISA Pathfinder exceeds expectations The ESA satellite mission LISA Pathfinder has successfully demonstrated the technology...
May 15, 2014
 LISA Pathfinder displayed for the first time at the ILA 2014 Direct detection of gravitational waves in space requires some completely new...
Mar 26, 2018
 Building the Mission: LISA Consortium Reboot We are now ready to reboot the Consortium and ask you to apply.

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort descending Title
Dec 06, 2023
 Conferences 3rd Einstein Telescope Site Preparation Board Workshop, December 6-7 2023 in Amsterdam
Sep 30, 2012
 Papers X-ray emission from high-redshift miniquasars: self-regulating the population of massive black holes through global warming
May 12, 2024
 Conferences GWADW 2024, May 12-18, Australia
Oct 25, 2023
 Positions Assistant Professor in Experimental Gravitational Wave at University of Florida
Dec 07, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral opportunities at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC & IEEC) in Barcelona
Mar 28, 2017
 Papers Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. V: Extreme mass-ratio inspirals
Sep 29, 2023
 Positions 3 Year LISA focused Postdoctoral Position in Montana
Nov 07, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral positions at Penn State
Jun 13, 2005
 Papers Advanced VIRGO: detector optimization for gravitational waves by inspiralling binaries
Jan 10, 2023
 Positions Scientist (m/f/d) for the leadership of a research group for the realization of a “Beyond LISA” mission
Oct 17, 2023
 Positions Faculty Position at Troy University
Nov 28, 2023
 Positions Scientific software developer in computational astrophysics at the University of the Balearic Islands, SPAIN
Oct 31, 2013
 Papers The effect of baryonic streaming motions on the formation of the first supermassive black holes
Nov 27, 2023
 Conferences 32nd Workshop on General Relativity and Gravitation, November 27 - December 1, 2023 in Japan
Oct 25, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Positions in Theoretical Particle Physics, Theoretical Cosmology/Gravitation at IFAE

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