In a blow to conspiracy theorists everywhere, a senior Barack Obama administration official also says there is also no credible information to suggest evidence of alien life is being kept from the public.

The unusual comment was contained in a response to several petitions lodged on a White House website by a senior space policy and communications official Phil Larson.
“The US government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race,” Larson wrote. “In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.”

Larson, however, said that the possibility of extraterrestrial life is discussed and explored, including several Nasa projects.

Despite denying hopes for proof of alien life, Larson did not rule out the idea that it could exist. “Many scientists and mathematicians have come to the conclusion that the odds are pretty high that somewhere among the trillions and trillions of stars in the universe there is a planet other than ours that is home to life.”