The pandemic has not sparked a shocking rise in UFO sightings, experts say. But the public is growing increasingly confused by ordinary objects.

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.

Are UFO sightings increasing?

The Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, is among the biggest and oldest groups of its kind. Their well-trained volunteers have been collecting UFO sightings — and investigating them in detail — for more than 50 years. They’ve also served as a central reporting database for UFO sightings since 1969.

Along the way, MUFON has investigated some truly bizarre cases, like a 2008 incident in Stephenville, Texas, where dozens of reliable witnesses claim they saw a UFO as big as a Walmart.

So, if there really was some massive surge in UFO sightings in recent years, MUFON would be among the first to know about it.

However, the group says they’re really not seeing a dramatic uptick in UFO sightings. There were about 3,800 cases reported between January and late September of this year, which is a roughly 20 percent increase compared to 2019. But they say that level of annual variation is normal for their dataset. And, in fact, reported cases have mostly been declining in recent years.

According to astronomy.com. Source of photos: internet