These states have the most UFO sightings

NASA UFO study findings released

The space agency released the findings after a yearlong study into UFOs.

An interactive map of UFO sightings breaks down exactly when and where people are spotting and reporting the most UFOs.

The National UFO Reporting Center’s heat map lets you click on a region to see specifics of each individual UFO report, like what the person saw and what time they saw it. Because the reporting center is U.S.-based, the vast majority of the reports come from the United States.

"It is apparent that UFOs are seen literally everywhere, and that the distribution of sighting reports closely matches the distribution of the population," the Reporting Center said in a blog announcing the map.

A UFO variety was photographed when it hovered for fifteen minutes near Holloman Air Development Center in New Mexico. The object was photographed by a government employee and was released by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization after careful s

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UFO sightings by state

Here’s a breakdown of UFO sightings in each state, according to the National UFO Reporting Center:

Alaska: 642
Alabama: 1,403
Arkansas: 1,289
Arizona: 4,981
California: 16,238
Colorado: 3,281
Connecticut: 2,033
Delaware: 419
Florida: 8,303
Georgia: 2,730
Hawaii: 672
Iowa: 1,225
Idaho: 1,357
Illinois: 4,298
Indiana: 2,732
Kansas: 1,191
Kentucky: 1,689
Louisiana: 1,127
Massachusetts: 2,709
Maryland: 1,856
Maine: 1,189
Michigan: 3,668
Minnesota: 2,111
Missouri: 2,813
Mississippi: 788
Montana: 1,004
North Carolina: 3,679
North Dakota: 277
Nebraska: 701
New Hampshire: 1,196
New Jersey: 2,894
New Mexico: 1,672
Nevada: 1,703
New York: 5,900
Ohio: 4,466
Oklahoma: 1,501
Oregon: 3,561
Pennsylvania: 5,047
Rhode Island: 599
South Carolina: 2,246
South Dakota: 396
Tennessee: 2,315
Texas: 6,202
Utah: 1,528
Virginia: 2,705
Vermont: 610
Washington: 7,230
Wisconsin: 2,453
West Virginia: 907
Wyoming: 416

Click here for an interactive version of the list, and here for the heatmap.

Pentagon official: ‘No evidence’ of aliens

In a recent op-ed in Scientific American, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the Pentagon official who led efforts to centralize UFO investigations, said his team found no evidence of aliens. They did, however, encounter "the erosion of critical thinking."

Sean Kirkpatrick (screen shot from NASA video)

"Carl Sagan popularized the maxim that ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,’" Kirkpatrick wrote. "This advice should not be optional for policy makers … Our capacity for rational, evidence-based critical thinking is eroding, with deleterious consequences for our ability to effectively deal with multiplying challenges of ever increasing complexity."

Kirkpatrick said he and the Pentagon "painstakingly" put together a team to create a science-based strategy of investigating unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), the government term for UFOs., but conspiracy theorists, with the help of Congress, consistently disrupted their work.

In July, retired Air Force Maj. David Grusch testified publicly before a congressional committee, claiming the U.S. has concealed what he called a "multi-decade" program to collect and reverse-engineer UAPs.

UFO hearing: Whistleblower says 'non-human biologics' found at crash sites

The House Oversight Committee held a historic hearing on UFOs, which included the testimony of three whistleblowers: David Grusch, Ryan Graves and David Fravor. LiveNOW's Andrew Craft spoke about the bombshell discoveries during today's hearing with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), aerospace analyst Bryan Bender and UFO expert Nick Pope. More LiveNOW from FOX streaming video

"Some members of Congress prefer to opine about aliens to the press rather than get an evidence-based briefing on the matter," Kirkpatrick wrote in Scientific American. "Members have a responsibility to exhibit critical thinking skills instead of seeking the spotlight."