This article presents translations from the Nobel lectures for physics in 2017 given by all three laureates, who decided to use the same title, but each one focused on different aspects of the discovery. Weiss discussed the early history of gravitational waves and presented the concepts needed to understand the detectors as well as the challenges faced in measuring strains as small as 10-21. Barish describes how the LIGO project was organized to make steady improvements and ultimately carried out a successful scientific program. He describes signal detections as well as ideas of how to improve the detectors. Thorne presented the broader aspects of the new field of gravitational wave astronomy. He described the critical role of numerical relativity simulations and understanding quantum mechanics of precision measurements. He also gave a vision of the science that could come from an investigation of the gravitational wave sky from periods of fractions of milliseconds to tens of billions of years., Rainer Weiss., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy