Elon Musk's satellites are muddling UFO sighting statistics, researchers say
CTV
A slight increase in UFO sightings in 2020 compared to pre-pandemic years may not be because of the pandemic itself, but because of Elon Musk’s new internet satellites, researchers found.
At the start of the pandemic, as many people found themselves spending a lot more time at home or outside than usual, a handful of researchers were curious about the effects of public health measures on a niche area of science: UFO sightings.
Would more people report seeing UFOs during their increased time at home? The answer, according to a new research article published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration last month, is yes — and no.
UFO reports did increase in 2020, but according to researchers, the cause didn’t seem to be the pandemic.
Instead, the culprit — or at least a compounding factor — could be a company owned by Elon Musk.
The articles outlines how researchers believed that because of lockdowns and physical distancing measures, along with an increase in anxiety among populations, there may have been an uptick in UFO sightings.
To test their hypothesis, they looked at data from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), which gather UFO reports from across the U.S., and looked at data from 2018 to 2020 in order to compare data from before and during the pandemic.
They also looked at Google Community Mobility Reports to see the general level of mobility of populations during these time periods, as well as the levels of COVID-19 cases and deaths in order to create a picture of when anxiety and stress may have been higher among communities.
