LIRA, a pioneer in astrophysics and instrumentation, pushes back the frontiers of knowledge
LIRA
Laboratory for Instrumentation and Research in Astrophysics
LENS: LIRA – Weekly Highlight
Credit: Sylvain Cnudde
Testing of the AIRS instrument on the ARIEL mission begins
6 April 2026The engineering model of the AIRS infrared spectrometer, part of ESA’s ARIEL space mission, is currently undergoing testing at LIRA. It has just been installed in LIRA’s SimEnOm cryogenic vacuum chamber, a chamber designed to replicate conditions similar to those in space and to verify that the instrument is functioning correctly.
LIRA is responsible for the entire test campaign: it is providing the equipment, including an optical bench that simulates the telescope, and is carrying out all the measurements to assess the instrument’s performance.
These tests will run until October 2026, with the participation of scientific teams from the CEA, the IAS and the IAP. Once this stage is complete, the instrument will be delivered to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the UK for further testing with all of ARIEL’s integrated systems.
The aim of the ARIEL mission is to study, for the first time in detail, the chemical composition of exoplanets (planets located outside our solar system) and to understand how they are influenced by their stars.
SEMINAR Tuesday 14 April 2026 14:00
Séminaires du pôle Étoiles et Galaxies Linking the chemical composition of stars and exoplanets : Accretion signatures on white dwarfs
Séminaires du pôle Étoiles et Galaxies Linking the chemical composition of stars and exoplanets : Accretion signatures on white dwarfs
News
Scientific news
2 February 2026
FIRST’s photonic lantern has just successfully completed the commissioning phase.
Presentation
LIRA, a CNRS joint research unit at Paris Observatory, is a laboratory of excellence in astrophysics and instrumentation. It studies astrophysical objects, from the Solar System to our Galaxy and beyond, through five thematic areas. Through international collaboration and instrumental innovation, it pushes back the frontiers of science and contributes to the training and dissemination of knowledge.
Our projects
MIRS on the JAXA MMX mission
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) is the first sample-return mission from the Phobos satellite. It also includes an exploration of the Martian system. The mission’s primary objective is to decipher the origin of Martian moons, which will provide important information on planet formation and the conditions for the emergence of water on Earth-like planets.
The MIRS (MMX InfraRed Spectrometer) instrument, developed under the leadership of LESIA (now LIRA), is an imaging spectrometer that will characterize the composition of the Martian system and help select candidate sites for sample collection.
GRAVITY+
The GRAVITY instrument, installed on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI/ESO), has produced spectacular and transformative results on the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, the active nuclei of other galaxies, proto-planetary disks around young stars and exoplanets. GRAVITY+ aims to modernise both VLTI and GRAVITY to make them ≈ 100 times more sensitive, while increasing sky coverage by a factor of ≈ 100, and contrast in the vicinity of bright objects by a factor of ≈ 10. These gains will benefit all the VLTI’s current and future instruments for the next 20 years, and will perpetuate it as a unique infrastructure in the world.
All projects
Projets en développement
Projets en exploitation
Projets passés
Contacts
Contacts
Postal address
Observatoire de Paris
5, place Jules Janssen
92195 Meudon
Phone
01 45 07 77 01
Meudon site
LIRA
Observatoire de Paris
5, place Jules Janssen
92195 MEUDON Cedex
Paris site
LIRA
Observatoire de Paris
77, Avenue Denfert-Rochereau
75014 Paris
Cergy site
LIRA - Site de Neuville II
UFR Sciences et Techniques - Département de physique
5, mail Gay Lussac
95000 Neuville-sur-Oise
