"In the early 1960s general relativity experienced a sudden revival in connection with astrophysical discoveries far removed from its original domain, which had essentially been confined to the solar system. The physicist Clifford Will coined the phrase “Renaissance of General Relativity” to describe the process through which general relativity became an internationally visible, highly active field of research in which theoretical explorations went hand in hand with new astrophysical discoveries such as s and the radiation. The systematic exploration of exact solutions, and the understanding of space-time singularities and of the physical reality of gravitational waves, all came only after the low-water-mark period, in the wake of the renaissance of general relativity."