Mallorca gathers 50 scientists for LISA space mission

Mallorca brings around 50 researchers to ParcBit in Palma from 11 to 13 November to work on Spain’s role in LISA, a space mission designed to detect signals beyond the reach of instruments on Earth. The University of the Balearic Islands is hosting the third annual meeting of Spanish research groups involved in the European Space Agency mission. The researchers, from universities and research centres across Spain, will meet at IAC3, the university says.

What LISA aims to find

LISA is planned as the first space observatory for gravitational waves. Its three satellites will form a triangle spanning 2.5 million kilometres to detect low-frequency waves that cannot be picked up from Earth. The mission aims to observe mergers of supermassive black holes, pairs of compact stars in the Milky Way and signals from the early universe.

Spain’s teams set out their work

The groups will coordinate their work on modelling sources of signals in space, analysing data and developing a distributed data processing centre. They also plan to present their progress and strengthen ties with the European Space Agency and the Spanish Space Agency.

The meeting opens on Thursday, 12 November, at 08.45. Speakers include university research vice-rector Víctor Homar, IAC3 director Alícia Sintes and Redongra lead researcher Carlos Sopuerta.

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com