If you're a fan of UFO then you might want to plan a trip.

There is a new study that was led by the University of Utah's geographers that says the "best" place to spot UFOs is in the American West.

The way that they performed the study was by taking into account date from the National UFO Research Center and then determined if environmental factors had any influence on whether they increased or decreased the likely hood of spotting a UFO. 

In a press release, the university said - 

“Most sightings occur in the American West where proximity to public lands, dark skies, and military installations afford more opportunities to see strange objects in the air,”

They also added - 

“The U.S. Department of Defense has increasingly taken UAP, formerly known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), as a serious threat to national security,”

So how did they come with this? The study took data from 98,000 sightings that have been reported from 2001-2020. From there they took into consideration "sky view potential", how much light pollution there is. What is the tree canopy like in that area. Also, the proximity of the sightings to airports and military bases.

With all of that said, the study found that most of the UFO sightings take place out West because of the wide open spaces and also darker skies. They also found that a majority of sightings happen in areas that have high air traffic and military activity. Meaning that what people are seeing in the sky are real things but they may not be able to identify exactly what they're seeing. 

So, are people really seeing UFOs? Well, according to the university - 

“The authors note that the National UFO Research Center’s data is a public, self-reporting system with no real way to verify hoaxes, However, the authors assert that if the data were entirely invalid due to some psychological and sociological cause, then there would be no spatial pattern. But there is.”

Richard Medina, lead author in the study says - 

“There’s more technology in the sky than ever before so the question is: What are people actually seeing?” Medina asked. “It’s a tough question to answer, and it is an important one because any uncertainty can be a potential threat to national security,”

Also, based on history alone, Medina said that the West has an established relationship with UFO or UAP sightings - 

“The West has a historical relationship to UAP — Area 51 in Nevada, Roswell in New Mexico, and here in Utah, we have Skinwalker Ranch in the Uinta Basin and military activity in the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground,”