With so many apparent ‘alien sightings’ in America, the long-standing mystery may finally have a solution.

Given that there have been hundreds of UFO sightings in the US throughout the years, I’m sure we can all agree that Americans enjoy conspiracy theories about aliens.

The United States is really one of the nations with the highest number of UFO sightings worldwide, according to research. Since 1947, more than 105,000 UFO sightings and interactions have been reported in the US, according to the National UFO Reporting Centre, MITechNews writes.

According to the World Population Review, there have already been 36 sightings in 2025 alone, however the UK has reported the most sightings this year with 59.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was established in 2022 after scientist Sean Kirkpatrick was assigned to lead a study into “unidentified anomalous phenomena” in light of the many UFO reports in the US.

According to a recent story by The Wall Street Journal, AARO was required to gather information on sightings and determine whether they could be explained by earthly technology as part of their investigation.

As might be expected, AARO attributed many of the hundreds of sightings to balloons, birds, and drones clogging the skies. The so-called ‘orbs’ that pilots reported seeing were described as’reflections of the sun from Starlink satellites’.

Additionally, AARO was assigned to examine historical documents dating back to 1945 pertaining to allegations made by former military members that Washington had a covert operation to extract technology from other planets.

Kirkpatrick and his crew conducted an interview with a former Air Force officer who claimed to have been informed about “a secret alien project” decades prior. The project was so secret that the man was warned he would face jail time or even death if he disclosed any information about it.

Other Air Forces officers reportedly shared similar opinions, but they didn’t even discuss the ostensibly covert operation with their own spouses.

However, Kirkpatrick and his team have since concluded that this was some sort of bizarre prank played on new Air Force commanders, which has contributed to the escalation of UFO sighting rumours in the United States and may help to explain why there are so many more “sightings” in the US than in other countries.

The WSJ explained: “For decades, certain new commanders of the Air Force’s most classified programs, as part of their induction briefings, would be handed a piece of paper with a photo of what looked like a flying saucer. The craft was described as an antigravity maneuvering vehicle.”

“The officers were told that the program they were joining, dubbed Yankee Blue, was part of an effort to reverse-engineer the technology on the craft. They were told never to mention it again. Many never learned it was fake.”

These bogus extraterrestrial reports were also allegedly created ‘to create a smokescreen for real secret-weapons programs’, in addition to what have been called ‘hazing’ motives.

Later this year, a second volume of the Defence Department’s Historical Record Report is anticipated to provide more of the AARO’s conclusions on the subject.