This Detailed Map of UFO Sightings Isn't Really a Map of UFO Sightings After All

What you’re looking at here is a ridiculously well-researched history of UFO sightings reported in America over the last century. Now, let’s presume for a second that no one has actually seen a real UFO. What the hell is this a map of? Simple answer: fireworks.

Built by Max Galka, the map is not only encyclopedic but interactive. Just roll your mouse over to the proper circle to read through dozens of witness reports from intimate accounts of having a ‘grey’ put someone under for experimentation, to multiple sources reporting the same eerie lights in the sky.

Like any good researcher, Galka wondered if there wasn’t something that could explain the sightings. Airports were out. The only major collection of sightings near an airport was outside Chicago’s O’hare, but there were sightings just as big in other cities without any planes around.

What Galka did find was that sightings happened to spike wildly on a few very famous party dates. Fourth of July, News Year’s Ever, and New Year’s Day. So what we’re probably seeing is less favorite alien vacation spots and more like places with really awesome fireworks. And when you consider these people aren’t really worried about aliens high on the red, white, and blue, this map gets a whole lot more heartwarming.