Ten years of cosmic ripples - the journey of gravitational wave astronomy from Virgo to Einstein Telescope

Abstract:

2025 marked the tenth anniversary of the first detection of gravitational waves and the end of the fourth and longest observing run of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA detectors. Overall, these ten years have been a sequence of unprecedented discoveries that revolutionized the way we observe the Universe. From the first association of a GRB with a binary neutron star merger to the experimental proof of Hawking's black hole area theorem, gravitational waves proved to be a powerful tool for testing gravity theories under extreme conditions and to help in the understanding of cataclysmic astronomical events. In this presentation, after a short summary of the history of gravitational wave science, I will give an overview of the current status of gravitational wave discoveries with a snapshot of future perspectives in the field, including the next generation detector Einstein Telescope.