Most of the smiles remained. It is just so difficult to imagine sometimes that big things from outer space can hit us and potentially hurt us. But they can, as views of Meteor Crater in Arizona verify. And they do, as moderately large objects strike our planet every year. Only six decades ago the thought of alien invaders was silly to many, but as soon as Welles's radio broadcast began, that fantastic notion became real.
Popular culture can, in a sense, legitimize an idea.
While some astronomers have known about it for years, a large portion of the population is now aware of the threat from small bodies whizzing silently past us here in the inner solar system. Life at the bottom of the atmosphere seems generally peaceful, and we who live here feel comfortably isolated from the harsh, sucking emptiness of space. But there are aliens of rock and ice out there who may eventually reach us.