War of the Worlds was an obvious and devastating response to the carnage of 9/11, updating the classic novel to a modern-day depiction of a society coming undone in the face of an apocalyptic alien invasion.

Every few months, someone announces we’re on the verge of finding alien life, and the headlines go predictably insane. What rarely makes it into those stories is what the actual scientific community thinks—as opposed to the two or three researchers who picked up the phone.

The White House launched aliens.gov, a space-themed site with live illegal immigrant arrest data, ICE heat maps and a tip line to report aliens.