First results from LISA Pathfinder about to be disclosed

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May 25, 2016/ Off Comments / in Announcement / by

PressConfLisaPF-7-6-16

Launched in December 2015, LISA Pathfinder travelled to its operational orbit, 1.5 million km from Earth towards the Sun, where it started its scientific mission on 1 March. At the core of the spacecraft, two identical gold–platinum cubes, are being held in the most precise freefall ever produced in space.

Placing the test masses in a motion subject only to gravity is the challenging condition needed to build and operate a future space mission to observe gravitational waves. Predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, gravitational waves are fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime, which were recently detected directly for the first time by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.

Over the first two months of scientific operations, the LISA Pathfinder team has performed a number of experiments on the test masses to prove the feasibility of gravitational wave observation from space. These results will be presented at the media briefing.

Programme outline

11:30–11:40
Fabio Favata, Head of the Coordination Office, ESA Directorate of Science - Opening up the gravitational Universe for ESA’s Science Programme

11:40–11:50
Paul McNamara, ESA LISA Pathfinder Project Scientist -LISA Pathfinder: A new way to look at our Universe

11:50–12:00
Martin Hewitson, LISA Pathfinder Deputy Primary Investigator, University of Hanover - LISA Pathfinder optical metrology performance

12:00–12:10
Stefano Vitale, LISA Pathfinder Primary Investigator, University of Trento - LISA Pathfinder first results

12:10–13:00
Question and Answer sessions 

 

Webstreaming: Livestream.com/esa

Social media: Twitter: @esascience and @ESA_LPF, hashtag #LisaPathfinder