LIVINGSTON - An observatory in the town of Livingston is one of two locations in the country being recognized as a historical site for a major discovery made just two years ago.

The American Physical Society announced Monday it would be naming the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory in Livingston Parish a historical site during a ceremony Wednesday.

LIGO is one of two observatories in the country to make the first direct observations of gravitational waves emanating from violent and distant astronomical events in February 2016. LIGO Livingston's sister observatory is located in Hanford, Washington and was also key to the discovery.

"The discovery of gravitational waves is, I think, the most important breakthrough in modern science," Szabolcs Marka, a physics professor at Columbia University, told CNN in 2016.

LIGO Livingston is located on LSU property, and LSU faculty, students and research staff are major contributors to the 1,000-member, international LIGO Scientific Collaboration, or LSC. LSU graduate students and post-doctoral researchers have conducted research at LIGO Livingston continuously over the past two decades.

The event will be held 11 a.m. Wednesday at LIGO.

You can read more about LIGO and the upcoming ceremony here: http://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2018/06/18physastro_ligo_historicsite.php