Thousands of UFOs have been reported in Indiana. Here's where they happen the most.

Spotting a UFO in the skies above Indianapolis might hinge on whether you live in Little Flower or Speedway, according to two Ohio researchers who reviewed thousands of documented sightings over a 20-year period.

In 2013, Hoosiers on the east side of the city reported up to 44 UFO's as opposed to neighborhoods on Indianapolis' west side. Clermont in Wayne Township logged a mere two objects — circular and disk-like in shape — in 2012.

These findings and more are in Cheryl Costa and Linda Miller Costa's book, "UFO's in Indiana and Where to Find Them," part of a series of books the couple penned for each state. Examining data from 2001-2020, they tabulated 169,632 sightings across the country derived from the National UFO Reporting Center and to MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network.

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The book organizes UFO sightings both by zip code and year. Indiana ranked 15th in the nation, according to the Costas, with 3,912 total reported sightings of unidentified flying objects over 20 years.

Cheryl Costa, 70, said the idea to examine UFO data happened while sipping pints at a Syracuse pub in October 2015. The couple were waiting for their burgers when Linda Miller Costa suggested they take a more scientific approach to UFO research, a subject that had intrigued her wife since age 12.

Anecdotes of strange aircraft zipping through the skies have been the subject of popular speculation for decades. Both women, however, wanted to examine the "bigger picture," Cheryl Costa explained.

"Linda said, 'Why is everybody always looking at case studies? ...Let's do science. Everybody else is telling stories. Let's measure the phenomenon,'" Cheryl Costa said, adding the couple was well-versed in both subjects.

Before retiring, Linda Miller Costa spent 15 years as the head librarian in the toxicology library for the EPA, according to their authors' biography. Cheryl Costa served roughly 10 years both in the Air Force, then in the Navy. After working 32 years as an information systems analyst in the aerospace industry with Lockheed Martin, she became a columnist for the Syracuse New Times in upstate New York where she wrote about UFOs.

These days, Cheryl Costa refers to herself as a UFO statistician.

As the couple examined more than 169,000 submitted UFO reports, she said Indiana stood out thanks to a spike of sightings in Kokomo.

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"It varies a little bit, but the average number of sightings across the country in about 23 a day," Cheryl Costa said, adding that Indiana gets an average of two sightings per week. "Well, on April 16, 2008, the (national) average shot up. All the states were about what I'd expect, except Indiana. It had 25 in one day."

While strange lights floating in the night sky aren't necessarily evidence of an advanced alien civilization, the FAA encourages people who spot UFOs and other unexplained phenomena to contact organizations like MUFON and the National UFO Reporting Center.

As of Wednesday, Feb. 22, the last such UFO report filed in Indiana came from Greenwood.

At about 7:40 p.m., Dec. 14, a Greenwood man pulling into his driveway reported that he saw, "three circular lights" rotating clockwise in a triangular shape.

"I pointed out to my girlfriend what I thought were stars in a constellation," he said in the report. "She pointed out the lights were way too bright and had a green hue to them. The lights were there for about 2-3 minutes before rotating over clockwise, then disappearing."

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John Tufts covers evening breaking and trending news for the Indianapolis Star. Send him a news tip at JTufts@Gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: UFO sightings in Indiana: two researchers explain where they happen