Think Different

Why ETs Won’t Land on the White House Lawn

It’s fun to imagine aliens making a dramatic Washington D.C. entrance. Asking why they don’t highlights a problem in the way we think about extraterrestrials.

Not even in 20th Century Fox’s 1951 science fiction classic ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still,’ directed by Robert Wise, did the alien make it to the White House lawn; he opted instead for the National Mall.

On Sunday, The New York Times published a guest essay online by Dr. Adam Frank, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester who is active in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Declaring himself to be unimpressed by the UFO phenomenon, Dr. Frank asks rhetorically:

“If we are being frequently visited by aliens, why don’t they just land on the White House lawn?”

That they have not done so is one of his “common-sense objections” to the theory that extraterrestrials are behind those pesky Tic Tacs and flying pyramids.

Let’s unpack this, the UFO/White House Lawn Gambit — so we can understand why it needs to be retired.

The trope likely originated in the early 1950s, a few years after the term “flying saucer” was popularized in the United States. The classic science-fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still, released by Twentieth Century Fox in 1951, opens with a flying…