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James Clark
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Gravitational wave observations of binary black hole mergers
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The first advanced LIGO observing run, O1,
saw the first direct detection of gravitational
waves from the merger of a stellar mass binary
black hole (BBH) system in the form of GW150914,
with another BBH candidate detection a little
over a month later, followed another confirmed
BBH detection immediately after Christmas
2015. The second observing run surpassed
even these successes with another three observations
of gravitational wave signals from BBH systems
so far reported: GW170104, GW170608 and,
the first joint LIGO-Virgo observations:
GW170814. I will review these recent observations,
the cornucopia of new science that they have
facilitated and I will conclude with a look
forward to plans and expectations for future
observations of binary black hole mergers.

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