Institute for Advanced Study / Princeton University Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

After decades of preparation, the era of gravitational wave astronomy has begun. The gravitational wave detectors, LIGO and Virgo, have published a catalog of 90 events of coalescing compact objects including black holes and neutron stars. I will present the role that numerical relativity played in the unveiling of the gravitational wave sky and anticipate how it might improve our understanding of gravity as the detectors improve.