The detection of gravitational waves

On February 11 2016 the scientific community was surprised by the announcement of the first observation of gravitational waves made by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations. The signal was named GW150914 indicating that the astrophysical event that produced it occurred the 14 of September of 2015. The detected waveform is consistent with the predictions of general relativity for the spiral and merger of a binary black hole system and subsequent relaxation period known as ring down of the resulting black hole. That detection was the first direct evidence of the existence of gravitational waves and the first observation of the merger of a binary black hole system.