LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave observations, and what we are learning from the detected signals

The Advanced LIGO gravitational wave (GW) detectors have completed two observing runs, and were joined by the Virgo GW detector for the last month of the second run. Since the first LIGO detection of GWs from a binary black hole merger in September 2015, more black hole mergers have been recorded and we are starting to get a picture of the properties and population of such systems. In addition, a remarkable binary neutron star merger was detected in August 2017, the first instance of this long-awaited GW event type. Besides kicking off a historic multi-messenger observing campaign, detailed analysis of the waveform has provided information about the tidal deformability and nuclear physics of neutron stars. I will summarize the GW observations, tests of General Relativity that have been carried out so far, and astrophysics insights that have been obtained.