For several decades scientists around the globe have worked hard towards the their dream of finding gravitational waves, tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time, which were first predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago. In February 2016 the long waiting had an end when the first observation of gravitational waves in the LIGO gravitational wave detectors made headlines around the world. Scientist had found the signature of two black holes which collided 1.4 billion years ago in a galaxy far, far away. This was the first time we could listen to the sound of the Universe, - Einstein's Symphony!

Professor Stefan Hild will report on long-lasting quest for finding gravitational waves, discuss all the additional signals found over the past year and will bring the sounds of several black hole inspirals for you to listen to. In the second part of the talk Stefan will give answers to questions like: Why did so many telescopes on the Earth and in space point at the same part of the sky in August 2017 in what was arguably the largest coordinated effort in astronomy ever. What were all of them looking for and what did they see? If you race gamma ray flash against a gravitational wave, who will win? How can we measure the age of the Universe? What is the origin of the gold from which the Nobel prize medals are made? What can we expect from the new era of so-called 'multi-messenger' astronomy?