Exaggerated UFO Reports?

Above, the Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Since many of us have been cooped up and going crazy for months, is boredom causing people to see more UFOs in the sky?

Astronomy Magazine seems to think so and they've posted an article about it.

They begin with:

This year, humanity has been forced to spend agonizing amounts of time cooped up at home. We’re upset. We’re bored. And we’re getting stir crazy. But has that translated into more people seeing unidentified flying objects? A surge of news stories have suggested that UFO sightings are on the rise around the world, with world-weary skyglancers reporting a growing number of alien encounters from Belgium to New York City.

However, not even so-called UFOlogists are really buying it, as the evidence for such claims is surprisingly weak. One website, the National UFO Reporting Center, noted a spike in sightings back in spring as the Pentagon released its juicy UFO tapes. But another popular reporting database, Mutual UFO Network, saw no such trend.

In fact, sightings have generally dropped in recent years, even as UFO investigators say they’re seeing an increasing number of people reporting easily identifiable objects. From blurry bugs to airplanes, from bright planets to Starlink satellites, cell phone-wielding observers have become increasingly confused by what's in the night sky.

To read more, go here.