In 2015-2016, the LIGO project was the first to directly observe gravitational waves using laser interferometers.[8][9] The LIGO detectors observed gravitational waves from the merger of two stellar-mass black holes, matching predictions of general relativity. These observations demonstrated the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems, and were the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.[10] This finding has been characterized as revolutionary to science, because the verification of our ability to use gravitational-wave astronomy to progress in our search and exploration of dark matter and the big bang.