In about 11 years, one of humankind’s most ambitious missions is set to launch into space . Decades in the making, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA, could revolutionize our understanding of the universe through its detections of gravitational waves. This is your in-the-weeds walkthrough of the science that will make this intrepid project possible.
The Hubble Space Telescope redefined our view of the universe, and the newly launched Webb Space Telescope is now doing the same. An ambitious, unprecedented space telescope, set to launch next decade, will continue in this tradition, but it will do so in ways never before imagined, with the ability to detect phenomena like gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime that offer a new window into the universe’s most mysterious events. Gravitational waves and why they matter Our universe is rife with gravitational waves—almost imperceptible ripples in spacetime generated by the movements of the universe’s most massive objects, neutron stars and black holes.
Gravitational waves travel at light speed, but don’t get it twisted: they aren’t light. But like gravitational fields around massive objects, the waves warp light, revealing their presence to only the most attentive scientists—with the most sensitive equipment. In 2016, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo collaborations announced the first detections of the subtle waves, which stretch and squeeze the fabric of the uni.