Mallorca hosts 50 scientists for LISA space mission

Mallorca’s ParcBit hosts around 50 scientists from across Spain from 11 to 13 November 2026: they are planning the country’s role in the LISA space mission. The University of the Balearic Islands is holding the third annual LISA Spain Meeting at the IAC3 headquarters there. The meeting opens on Thursday, 12 November, at 08.45, with university research vice-rector Víctor Homar, IAC3 director Alícia Sintes and Redongra lead researcher Carlos Sopuerta due to speak.

Three satellites, one vast triangle

LISA stands for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. The European Space Agency mission will be the first observatory for gravitational waves in space. Its three satellites will form a triangle with sides of 2.5 million kilometres, seeking low-frequency waves that cannot be detected from Earth.

Scientists hope it will let them observe mergers of supermassive black holes, pairs of compact stars in the Milky Way and signals from the early universe.

Spain’s work on the mission

The scientists are meeting to coordinate Spain’s contribution: modelling astrophysical sources, analysing data and developing a distributed data processing centre. They will also present their progress and seek closer ties with the European Space Agency and the Spanish Space Agency.

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com