The birth of gravitational waves astronomy: an overview of in the latest LIGO-VIRGO observational run

Since September 14 2015, when the two LIGO detectors registered a nearly simultaneous signal consistent with gravitational-wave emission by the merger of two black holes, further and in-depth analysis of the subsequent 5 month-long data revealed new important candidates.

Following the formal announcement regarding these results, it is now clear that we are witnessing the birth of a new astronomy guided by highly dense, relativistic objects.

We shall review the basics of gravitational waves detectors and their data analysis, focusing on the comprehensive results of the first advanced-detectors observational run and we shall hint to possible prospects for future observations.