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A third of Americans believe aliens exist - and one in 10 claim to have seen a UFO hovering in the sky.

Now there's a map that reveals sightings of extraterrestrials in the US over the past 76 years - and it suggests that we are experiencing more cosmic traffic than ever before.

Explanations for the sightings are just as vague as for the aliens themselves, with many investigators putting the sightings down to the development of drones and new aircraft technologies.

But some continue to believe it is because of genuine rise in alien activity.

A map shows sightings of extra-terrestrials over the US in the last 76 years – and seems to suggest we have more cosmic visitors than ever. It was created by writer Levi Pearson, who used a UFO sighting dataset from the National UFO Reporting Centre and open source software from CartoDB

The map was created by writer Levi Pearson, who used a UFO sighting dataset from the National UFO Reporting Centre and open source software from CartoDB.

Published in the QuantBait website, it begins in 1933 and among the first UFO sightings are over California and Nebraska. Interestingly, there seem to be repeated sightings over the years over an inland city called Bakersfield.

The number of sightings increases dramatically between the 1940s and the 1960s.

Sightings documented during the 1940s include The Battle of Los Angeles and the Roswell UFO Incident.

On February 25 1942, radar operators spotted a UFO within 120 miles (193km) of Los Angeles that moved at incredible speed before vanishing.

Explanations for UFO sightings are just as vague as for aliens themselves, and could be down to the development of drones and new aircraft technologies – or a genuine rise in alien activity. An illustration of a flying saucer is pictured

The map shows a dramatic rise in the number of UFO sightings during the 1950s and 1960s. While this could indicate ore alien activity, the CIA recently claimed that half of UFO sightings were directly correlated to them testing U2 spy planes (pictured) at altitudes of 60,000 ft

An artillery officer said he saw 25 craft flying at 25,000ft (7,620 metres) and other eye witnesses reported seeing swarms of balloon-shaped objects flying at around 200mph (320km/h).

Fearing the city was under attack, officials fired at the aircraft but no evidence of damage was ever found, prompting people to speculate the UFOs were from another world.

And in 1947 the Roswell Incident occurred, which is still the source of speculation today.

While the US military claimed they recovered a secret research balloon that had crashed, conspiracy theorists say the wreckage of an alien craft was discovered and hidden.

While it's possible that there were more UFO visitations during the decade, officials at the time put it down to people being nervous about World War II, and seeing objects in the sky.

Thanks to the rise in popularity of sci-fi films and an increase in UFO sightings, aliens were very much in the public consciousness in the 1960s. Here, Dr H Allen Hyneck, an astrophysicist at  Northwestern University says at a press conference in 1966, that a photo claiming to show a UFO is a time exposure of the crescent moon and the planet Venus

Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual, told MailOnline: 'Sightings of strange things in the sky have been reported for centuries, though it was only with them being labelled as flying saucers or UFOs that people began to realise that this is a worldwide phenomenon.

'UFO sightings often come in sudden and short-lived periods, which ufologists call flaps or waves.

Often specific locations seem to be highly attractive to UFOs, and these locations are known as UFO window areas or UFO portals.

'In the UK, Warminster, Cannock Chase and Bonnybridge are the most famous UFO window areas.

But there is a marked increase in sightings on the map during the 1950s and 1960s, all across the US shown on the map. 

It is worth noting, however, that some famous sightings are missing, such as reports of flying saucers over Washington DC in 1952.

Last year, the CIA took credit for half of the UFO reports in the 1950s and 1960s and as sci-fi films gained popularity such as Invaders from Mars, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it's possible aliens were higher in the public conscious than ever before.

The CIA said that UFO sightings were directly correlated to them testing U2 spy planes at altitudes of 60,000 ft (18,288 metres) - a feat of engineering that was not possible before.

Reports suggest that the CIA soon realised that UFO sightings lined up with the place and time the U-2 planes were flying, but that they purposefully chose not to let people know that what they were seeing were not aliens to keep the tests firmly under wraps.

From the mid-1990s onwards, the explosion of sightings intensify on the map, with large concentrations over the West Coast and the whole eastern half of the US, from Texas. 

This could be down to the widespread uptake of the internet, which allowed people to share sightings more easily than before.

Mr Watson said: 'With the coming of the internet it is easier for people to report UFO sightings and this is probably one reason for a rise in sightings.

'We should also acknowledge that Chinese lanterns and the increased deployment of drones are responsible for greater amounts of sightings.'

John Wickman, Chairman of the British UFO Association (Bufora) said: 'Technology is vastly progressing and a very large number of sightings no matter where they are in the world can be attributed to modern military craft that have been misidentified.' 

'Just because a UFO report is made does not mean that the object originates from anywhere other than the Earth,' he cautioned.

Mr Watson said: 'On the other hand, the internet allows access to greater amounts of information and enables us to discuss reports from lots of different angles, from the extreme sceptical viewpoints to the most outlandish conspiracy rumours. 

'With or without the internet, ufologists tend to think that only five to 10 per cent of sightings are of anything exotic and worthy of further investigation.'