Universe ID: 4749

LISA Pathfinder Trajectory to L1

Visualizations by Tom Bridgman Released on November 18, 2019

LISA Pathfinder, a mission led by ESA (the European Space Agency) that included NASA contributions, successfully demonstrated technologies needed to build a future space-based gravitational wave observatory, a tool for detecting ripples in space-time produced by, among other things, merging black holes.

These animations follow the trajectory of LISA Pathfinder from Earth to its working "halo" orbit around Sun-Earth L1, a gravitational balance point about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth in the sun's direction.

Used Elsewhere In

Visualization Credits

Tom Bridgman (GST): Lead Data Visualizer
James Ira Thorpe (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park): Lead Writer
Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Producer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Science Paper:
Micrometeoroid Events in LISA Pathfinder

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Data Used:

SPICE Ephemerides also referred to as: SPICE Ephemerides

Ephemeris - NASA/JPL

Satellite and planetary ephemerides

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Keywords:
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> Lagrange Points
NASA Science >> Universe
SVS >> LISA Pathfinder