10 FALL 2019 • POPSCI.COM
OVERVIEWthe casual
observers
UFO SIGHTINGS ARE A BIT LIKE
lottery tickets. They can be thrilling, embarrassing
to amass, and all it takes is one good encounter to
change someone’s life (or life as we know it) for-
ever. And boy, do people amass them. For decades,One data-analytics researcher found that 61 percent
of NUFORC sighting reports occurred within 24 miles
of a military installation, suggesting government air-
craft as likely culprits. But the concentration may
have more to do with population density than top-
secret jets. Many sites are mostly bases for outfits like
the Air and Army national guards, which tend to be
near human-dense areas and which probably aren’t
hosting futuristic flight testing (and are likely not of
particular interest to alien visitors).Nearly three-quarters of saucer reports
with a timestamp happen in the dark, but
not necessarily because aliens hide in
shadows. Humans are simply more likely to
stare at the sky between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.
Temperate weather, leisure time, longer
nights, and higher populations are the big-
gest factors for UFO hotspots. The largest,
most consistent groups of observers? Dog
walkers and people on smoke breaks.THEY COME AT NIGHT
BASE READING
SOURCE:^ CHERYL^ COSTA,^ LINDAMILLERCOSTA^ (RIGHTMAP);^ REBECKAFLYNN^(LEFTMAP)