More than a year ago, the Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) gravitational-wave detector reported the discovery of the first direct detection of gravitational waves confirming Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity in its extreme limit. In this talk I will first discuss the importance of gravitational waves for fundamental physics and the main sources aLIGO is expected to detect. I will first focus on the discoveries over the last year, where the gravitational waves were caused by the merging of two massive stellar-mass black holes. I will outline some of the astrophysical channels by which such systems can form and provide an outlook for what can be expected once aLIGO has achieved its design sensitivity.

    In the end, I will discuss the just announced merger of two neutron stars, one the primary objectives of the aLIGO mission, which was also seen as a gamma-ray burst and kilonova, and its implications for the rates of such events (including those of short-duration gamma-ray bursts) and fundamental physics, in particular, the origin of r-process elements such as gold and platinum.

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