Evidence of aliens? What to make of research and reporting on 'Oumuamua, our visitor from space

'Oumuamua, meaning scout or messenger in Hawaiian, is the name given to the first detected interstellar object to visit our solar system. On discovery last year, 'Oumuamua was classified as a comet, but this was later withdrawn when no evidence for cometary activity was detected.

'Oumuamua was quickly found to have an orbit that does not belong to our solar system. It has an origin elsewhere in our galaxy, and a trajectory that saw it traverse the inner solar system over the course of a few months.

It passed close to the sun and to Earth, and was found to have an unusual geometry, about 200 metres long and some 35 metres wide, rotating every seven hours.

The discovery of 'Oumuamua generated a lot of attention in the scientific community, and in the media. Given its unusual geometry and its origin outside the solar system, questions were soon asked as to whether 'Oumuamua could be a spacecraft.

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This animation (annotated) shows the path of the interstellar asteroid 1I/2017 (`Oumuamua) through the Solar System.

Observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope and others have shown that this unique object is dark, reddish in colour and highly elongated.