"LISA Mission Approved: Capturing Spacetime Ripples"
The European Space Agency has approved the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, a groundbreaking endeavor to detect and study gravitational waves from space. LISA will consist of a constellation of three spacecraft that will trail Earth in its orbit, forming an equilateral triangle in space and exchanging laser beams over a distance of 2.5 million km. The mission aims to capture gravitational waves from massive cosmic events, trace the origin and growth of black holes, and provide insights into the early moments of the Universe. LISA will utilize solid gold-platinum cubes and laser interferometry to detect minuscule changes in spacetime, and is set to launch in 2035 on an Ariane 6 rocket.