Post by auntym on Sept 18, 2011 21:29:51 GMT -6
www.sott.net/articles/show/235102-UFO-Reports-Spiked-this-Summer
UFO Reports Spiked this Summer
Benjamin Radford
Life's Little Mysteries
Sat, 17 Sep 2011 18:52 CDT
© Colonial Productions
Promotional poster for the 1950 film 'The Flying Saucer.'
According to an organization that tracks UFO reports, this summer has been an especially busy period for UFO sightings. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) noted that sightings increased over the past six weeks, with some states more than doubling their normal numbers.
Are we on the cusp of an alien invasion? Or maybe people just have more time on their hands to spot - and report - strange things in the sky?
"It's pretty exciting," said Clifford Clift, the international director of MUFON. "When you average 500 a month [nationwide] and go to 1,013 in one month, that's an interesting spike in sighting reports."
Clift told Life's Little Mysteries that he's not sure what to make of the data at this point. It could be the start of something big, or it could merely be a computer glitch that accidentally counted some reports twice. Another possibility is that we're simply in the midst of a "UFO flap," one of many periodic increases in sightings over the years.
There are several reasons UFOs might appear in flaps, or clusters. One is that objects in the sky are usually seen by many people, especially when they appear over urban areas. UFOs typically don't hover close to Earth or in someone's back yard; instead, they are often sighted high in the sky - just far enough away so that we can't see details or get sharp photos. Thus, whatever a particular UFO really is - a plane, a comet, an extraterrestrial spacecraft, or something else - that one object or strange light in the sky could trigger hundreds, or even thousands, of reports. And even reports of the same object will probably differ depending on the reporter's perspective.
Thus, if there were hundreds of UFO reports in a state during a given period, it's important to know how those reports were categorized because it might mean hundreds of different UFOs were sighted by single individuals, or that one UFO was sighted by hundreds of people.
CONTINUE READING: www.sott.net/articles/show/235102-UFO-Reports-Spiked-this-Summer
UFO Reports Spiked this Summer
Benjamin Radford
Life's Little Mysteries
Sat, 17 Sep 2011 18:52 CDT
© Colonial Productions
Promotional poster for the 1950 film 'The Flying Saucer.'
According to an organization that tracks UFO reports, this summer has been an especially busy period for UFO sightings. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) noted that sightings increased over the past six weeks, with some states more than doubling their normal numbers.
Are we on the cusp of an alien invasion? Or maybe people just have more time on their hands to spot - and report - strange things in the sky?
"It's pretty exciting," said Clifford Clift, the international director of MUFON. "When you average 500 a month [nationwide] and go to 1,013 in one month, that's an interesting spike in sighting reports."
Clift told Life's Little Mysteries that he's not sure what to make of the data at this point. It could be the start of something big, or it could merely be a computer glitch that accidentally counted some reports twice. Another possibility is that we're simply in the midst of a "UFO flap," one of many periodic increases in sightings over the years.
There are several reasons UFOs might appear in flaps, or clusters. One is that objects in the sky are usually seen by many people, especially when they appear over urban areas. UFOs typically don't hover close to Earth or in someone's back yard; instead, they are often sighted high in the sky - just far enough away so that we can't see details or get sharp photos. Thus, whatever a particular UFO really is - a plane, a comet, an extraterrestrial spacecraft, or something else - that one object or strange light in the sky could trigger hundreds, or even thousands, of reports. And even reports of the same object will probably differ depending on the reporter's perspective.
Thus, if there were hundreds of UFO reports in a state during a given period, it's important to know how those reports were categorized because it might mean hundreds of different UFOs were sighted by single individuals, or that one UFO was sighted by hundreds of people.
CONTINUE READING: www.sott.net/articles/show/235102-UFO-Reports-Spiked-this-Summer