“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away: studying the distant gravitational universe with LISA”  Professor Martin Hendry (Unversity of Glasgow)

In January 2024 the European Space Agency officially adopted the LISA mission for launch in the mid-2030s.  LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, will be the first gravitational-wave observatory in space and will represent the next huge leap forward in the nascent field of gravitational-wave astrophysics and cosmology.  Comprising three spacecraft in a triangular configuration millions of kilometres apart, LISA will measure changes in the phase of laser light travelling between the spacecraft as spacetime “stretches and squeezes” due to gravitational waves passing through the inner Solar System.  Join Glasgow University astronomer Martin Hendry as he describes the remarkable science and technology behind the LISA mission, explores the new gravitational-wave sources that LISA will detect for the first time and highlights some of the exciting science questions that LISA’s observations will hopefully allow us to answer.