UFO Sighting Reports Hit Record High

Speculations on the existence of extraterrestrial life went high recently after NASA officially announced the discovery of a solar system with Earth-like planets. The TRAPPIST-1 is estimated to be 39 light years away, but finding aliens may not need going that far as they could be in our backyard.

UFO sighting reports are at an all-time high, according to Sam Monfort. The US Ph.D. student used the data from the National UFO Reporting Center to collate reported sightings of UFOs, which have sprung up significantly since the 1980s.

In his data visualization blog, he plotted yearly sightings from 1910 to 2010, where sightings top 45,000 around the world.

The details of UFO sighting reports have also changed over time.

One of the earliest accounts of UFO sightings took place in 1905 from Portland, where a sphere UFO descended from the clouds buzzing.

Claims from witnesses seeing other shapes started to pop up later, with saucers dominating in numbers until the 1990s as strange lights became the most famous.

The doctoral student of human factors and applied cognition in Virginia talks about a July 4th effect where sightings rise significantly after 2008 on the U.S. Independence Day, which could be attributed to fireworks lighting up the sky.

The George Mason University student also created a map of the globe with UFO sightings per ten million people. Areas in deep shade of red have over 25 sightings per 10 million people, and these include North America, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe.

The vast majority of reported UFO sightings take place in the United States, which recorded around 2500 per 10 million people. The nation’s western states Washington and Montana, as well as northeastern states Maine and Vermont, are places in the country with most reported UFO sightings.