By KEVIN BURWICK
The Mutual UFO Network says that UFO sightings have gone up considerably in 2020, but why has this occurred?
UFO sightings have surged in 2020, leaving many to wonder if the year will end with an alien invasion. 2020 has kept the world on its toes since January. The pandemic has claimed over a million lives globally, and forced people to stay home. Which leaves more time for staring up at the sky. The 5G conspiracy theories popped up shortly after the pandemic set in, along with a crop of Japanese Murder Hornets and Soviet nuclear cannibal ants. Would aliens really be out of the question for 2020?
MUFON, aka the Mutual UFO Network, which is run by 4,000 volunteers around the world, has been investigating UFO sightings for decades. Tom Maher is the Minnesota Director of MUFON and he claims that there have been 99 UFO sightings this year in Minnesota alone, which doesn't seem like much. However, when compared to the 1,226 sightings in the past 20 years, that number looks a lot more significant. Maher had this to say.
"Whenever we get a case that is reported, we are always kind of looking at that, is there a nuts and bolts phenomenon here or is it something else... We have people with a scientific background, people with a military background, and your average person who has their daily job."
In the last two decades, 2015 had the most sightings at 114 in Minnesota. "A couple months back we peaked at 18 to 20 a month but that was Elon Musk and he was lunching the SpaceX satellites," Tom Maher says. But, why are all of these sightings happening in 2020? As it turns out, the pandemic may play a huge role in the recent uptick of UFO sightings.
Thaddeus LaCoursiere, a Planetarium Educator at the Bell Museum in St Paul believes that quarantine is to blame for all of the 2020 UFO sightings. "Sorry to say I don't think its aliens," he said. "The most solid answer is; for the last few months we've been stuck at home, we've been spending more time outside, we've been seeing things you don't see if you are stuck inside an office all day." LaCoursiere continued, "As long as people have been around looking at the sky trying to understand what we are seeing, we've been cataloging it, we've been telling stories and it's such a powerful thing to see. It connects us to something so much more."
As a whole, UFO sightings are up 51% globally in 2020 when compared to 2019. Many of the sightings end up being drones, planes, or satellites, which are quickly proven. However, the United States government recently declassified videos which showed military pilots coming into contact with UFOs and having no idea what they saw. In August of this year, the Pentagon announced a task force to study "unexplained aerial phenomena," aka UAP. In New York, UFO sightings are also up from 2019 and some are claiming that they have been feeling weird heat sensations when observing these UFOs. Will 2020 be the year that the aliens finally reveal themselves? We only have a few more weeks of the year to find out. Fox 9 News was the first to report on the uptick in UFO sightings.
