Feb 21, 2009 04:26 PM
14,560
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 4:58 AM
Tue Feb 9
24 posts in the last 24 hours
Where do UFOs show their blinky lights most often in America? Now a handy map of UFO sightings since the 1940s offers a surprising answer.
As part of Popular Mechanics' special report on UFO sightings, the magazine has put together a map showing where people report UFOs most often. Los Angeles tops the list, which isn't terribly surprising given its proximity to an industry which has churned out hundreds of movies about alien invasion.
Other top cities, like San Diego, are in close proximity to "special use airspace," areas the military reserves for aircraft testing. That might mean residents are more likely to see unexplained things zooming across the skies and report them. In fact, several regions close to special use airspace have high UFO sighting rates.
Popular Mechanics speculates that other areas, like tiny Westmoreland County, PA, have (proportionally) such a huge number of sightings due to local history. An alleged UFO crash happened in that region in the 1950s, and so locals may be more likely to report UFOs to authorities.
Send an email to Annalee Newitz, the author of this post, at annalee@io9.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Start a new discussion