Mysterious objects hurtling through the sky have long been a source of fascination around the world.
Dozens of reported UFO sightings are recorded each year in the US – and now the states where you’re most likely to spot one have been revealed.
UFOs have become a hot topic in Washington – moving from being dismissed as a fringe conspiracy theory to a serious national security debate.
Many US intelligence officials and servicemen have gone on the record in recent years to document the mysterious phenomena.
And a historic report by the Pentagon last year revealed that 143 sightings by the military since 2004 remain unexplained.
Sighting data from since records began until now have been analyzed from all 50 states by GreatLakeStakes, with one clear winner.
California is the UFO capital of the US, with a staggering 15,072 sightings reported in the Golden State.
Florida is a fair way behind in second, with 7,513 sightings.
Coming in a third is Washington with 6,720, with Texas fourth with 5,631 sightings, New York fifth with 5,403 reports and Arizona with 4,604.
Finishing off the top ten is Pennsylvania with 4,592 sightings, Ohio with 4,110, Illinois with 4,025 and Michigan with 3,383.
At the opposite end of the scale are North Dakota and South Dakota, which have registered just 264 and 355 reports respectively since records began.
But despite California’s mammoth UFO report record, the crown for the spookiest state goes to Texas thanks to its huge number of ghost sightings.
The Longhorn state has 7,382 reported sightings on record, with California, Ohio and Michigan trailing behind with 6,973, 2,903 and 2,704 each respectively.
And, combining paranormal experiences with the population of each state, your odds of seeing something supernatural are highest in Maine – followed by Vermont and Montana.
It comes after the Pentagon was unable to give an explanation for 143 sightings of “unidentified aerial phenomenon” (UAP) which were examined after being reported by pilots.
The highly-anticipated report on UFOs last year only explained one single sighting – a deflating balloon.
Meanwhile, an expert has warned Russian and Chinese military drones could explain mysterious alleged UFO sightings.
Nick Pope, who investigated UFOs for the British Government, said the issue of unidentified aerial phenomena has “gone dark” since Pentagon’s report was published in June.
Pope told The Sun: “The UFO community boils the debate down as you must either believe it’s aliens or drones.
“I think the real world is more nuanced than that. It’s not a binary situation and it’s perfectly possible to imagine a scenario where the sightings could be both Chinese and Russian drones and aliens. It’s not as if these are mutually exclusive.”
The former Ministry of Defense official said the UFO debate gets “simplified” because of “human nature”.
Pope warned that the US may be behind its rivals in trying to explain the mysterious sightings.
In one reported sighting, a JetBlue pilot reportedly spotted what he said was a UFO “transforming” in mid-air 37,000 feet over Texas.
And in December last year, The Sun reported how a video shot from an airliner cockpit appeared to show a fleet of 12 UFOs flying in formation.
The pilot who shot the footage can be heard reacting in astonishment to the eerie lights that appeared and then vanished in clouds above the Pacific Ocean.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.
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CHINA has revealed it is developing a top secret underwater drone
CHINA has revealed it is developing a top secret underwater drone designed to track and destroy enemy submarines with no human input.
The unmanned attack robot was first test fired in the Taiwan Strait a decade ago but its existence was not made public until now.
The project to build the drone was funded by the People’s Liberation Army and dates back to the 1990s, reports the South China Morning Post.
Under testing, it was reportedly able to detect a dummy submarine, identify its origin and hit it with a torpedo.
The craft is said to rely entirely on artificial intelligence and does not need any instructions from an operator.
Details of the part-declassified project were revealed in an academic paper last week.
Researchers described a 2010 test in the Taiwan Strait in which a drone was programmed to follow a pre-set course around 30ft below the surface.
When its sonar detected another craft, the drone changed course and circled the target, using onboard sensors to gather readings which were analysed by its computer. /thesun.co.uk/
