Institute for Advanced Study/Princeton University Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

Advanced LIGO discovered cosmic gravitational waves and surprised us with giant binary black-hole systems, just in time for the 100th anniversary of Einstein's prediction. Gravitational waves became the latest window on the Universe from violent transients to cosmology. I will discuss some aspects of (i) the instrumental breakthroughs that enabled the unprecedented sensitivity reached by Advanced LIGO and (ii) the key scientific directions in which gravitational wave searches are being utilized in the context of multimessenger astronomy focusing on the future.