Barack Obama clarifies his comments about aliens being ‘real’

Barack Obama has clarified his comments about the existence of aliens.

Over the weekend the former US leader appeared on Brian Tyler Cohen's podcast, which saw him respond to a racist video Donald Trump shared of him and wife Michelle earlier this month as well as the one topic which continually dominates the thoughts of every US citizen, aliens.

When asked for his thoughts of the existence of extraterrestrial lifeforms by Cohen, Obama said that he does indeed believe that aliens exist.

"They’re real, but I haven’t seen them," he said.

Despite Obama stating that aliens have not touched down in the states, contrary to the belief of 'storm Area 51' crowd, many took the former president's comments and ran with it – prompting the 64-year-old to now issue a clarification on social media.

Barack Obama's comments about aliens reignited debates around the topic over the weekend (Getty Stock Images)

Taking to Instagram, Obama stated that his comments weren't formed by evidence he'd seen of aliens existing but instead an assumption based on probability.

"I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify," he wrote under a video of the original exchange.

"Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low."

The clarification will likely come as a blow to people who believed we finally, finally, had confirmation that we weren't alone in the universe but is one that makes complete sense.

After all, the radius of the observable universe is believed to be around 46.5 billion light-years, with BBC Science estimating the actual universe is around 250 times bigger than the observable universe. Meanwhile NASA estimates that just five percent of the universe is made up of ordinary matter.

The former US leader has since clarified his comments (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Add in the fact that humans are yet to travel further than the moon - our space exploration is currently limited to telescopes and unmanned probes - and the argument becomes pretty clear, aliens most likely do exist but we've just not found them yet.

Which seems to be Obama's - and most people's - personal beliefs.

The former president also clarified that he'd never personally seen evidence of UFO contact during his time in office, adding: "I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!"

This is something he also touched on in the podcast, jokingly telling Cohen that if aliens are hanging out in Nevada, he wasn't made aware.

"They’re not being kept in, what is it...Area 51," he said. "There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the president of the United States."