A Decade of Astrophysical Observations with Gravitational Waves

2025 marked the 10-year anniversary of the first direct detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO collaboration. The data revealed the event to be the merger of a binary black hole system. Since then, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) network has observed some 300 black hole mergers. The analysis of these data is providing unique tests of general relativity and models of stellar formation. While the majority of the events in the LVK dataset are black hole mergers — which are uniquely observed with gravitational waves (so far) — mergers involving neutron stars have initiated observational campaigns involving gravitational waves, electromagnetic signals, and neutrinos. These multi-messenger observations have not only shed light on some mysteries, for example the origin of heavy elements, with ongoing efforts they are opening a window on possible new sources of gravitational waves. In this talk we will review some highlights of what has been learned in the past decade of gravitational-wave observations and discuss the exciting near-term and longer-term prospects for exploring the universe with this unique probe.