The US government has officially stated that it lacks any information regarding contact with extraterrestrial life.
This declaration was made in response to petitions submitted on the We The People website, which commits to addressing any petition that collects 5,000 signatures.
Two separate petitions requested the government to disclose information on extraterrestrial beings and to acknowledge any potential contact.
The White House replied, stating that there is “no evidence that any life exists outside our planet.”
The two petitions saw participation from over 17,000 citizens, prompting the White House to raise the response threshold to a minimum of 25,000 signatures.
According to Phil Larson, a space policy expert from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, “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.”
Furthermore, he added, “There is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being concealed from the public.”
The announcement detailed ongoing efforts that might contribute evidence to the discussion, such as the space missions Kepler and the Mars Science Laboratory.
Kepler is on a quest to find Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars, while the Mars Science Laboratory aims to analyze the geology of the Red Planet in search of the fundamental components of life, though it will not expressly seek out life itself.
One of the most recognized endeavors in the search for alien life is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti), which was partially supported by the US space agency NASA and continues to monitor the cosmos for indications of intelligent civilizations.
Mr. Larson encapsulated the statistical aspect that the hunt for extraterrestrials inherently involves.
“Numerous scientists and mathematicians have examined… the question of whether life likely exists beyond Earth and have concluded that the odds are quite favorable that somewhere among the trillions of stars in the Universe, there exists a planet aside from ours that harbors life,” he explained.
“However, many also observe that the likelihood of us initiating contact with any such life forms—particularly intelligent ones—is exceedingly low, considering the vast distances that separate them.”
