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 09, 2017
 The AEI mourns a gravitational-wave research pioneer Prof. Dr. Heinz Billing dies on 4 January 2017 at the age of 102 - Obituary
Dec 13, 2016
 LISA Pathfinder's pioneering mission continues: Mission gets a six month extension On 7 December, LISA Pathfinder started the extended phase of its mission, an additional...
Nov 30, 2016
 Advanced LIGO detectors begin 2nd observation run AEI researchers expect new discoveries from LIGO instruments On Wednesday, 30 November,...
Nov 16, 2016
 NASA Microthrusters Achieve Success on ESA's LISA Pathfinder A next-generation technology demonstration mission has just passed a big milestone.
Oct 25, 2016
 Next step towards a gravitational-wave observatory in space ESA has invited European scientists to propose concepts for the third large mission in...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Image Title
Apr 24, 2014
 Papers Data Analysis Methods for Testing Alternative Theories of Gravity with LISA Pathfinder
Mar 27, 2014
 Papers Constraints on Einstein-Æther theory and Horava gravity from binary pulsar observations
Oct 31, 2013
 Papers The effect of baryonic streaming motions on the formation of the first supermassive black holes
Jan 18, 2013
 Papers On the complementarity of pulsar timing and space laser interferometry for the individual detection of supermassive black hole binaries
Sep 30, 2012
 Papers X-ray emission from high-redshift miniquasars: self-regulating the population of massive black holes through global warming
Aug 11, 2012
 Papers Breadboard model of the LISA phasemeter
Feb 02, 2012
 Papers Low-frequency gravitational wave science with LISA
Jan 06, 2012
 Papers LISA: Astrophysics and cosmology in the millihertz regime
Sep 26, 2011
 Papers Gravitational Radiation in Horava Gravity
May 04, 2011
 Papers Fourth order indirect integration method for black hole perturbations: even modes
Mar 07, 2011
 Papers A source-free integration method for black hole perturbations and self-force computation: Radial fall
May 03, 2010
 Papers Free fall and self-force: an historical perspective
Apr 30, 2009
 Papers Assembly of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshifts
Oct 25, 2005
 Papers Expected coalescence rates of NS-NS binaries for laser beam interferometers
Jun 13, 2005
 Papers Expected Coalescence Rate of Double Neutron Stars for Ground Based Interferometers

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