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to say theres nothing near would require a useful comparison from within another part of the, or a, galaxy
 
If the nearest three are around 4.3 light years away, the other 497 are logically going to be even further away.
 
Interesting how the stars in that chart are all clustered in little groups, the members of which are less than one light year apart.
A third the distence we are from our nearest neighbors. And they are all in the same group.
 
isnt that a binary star system

either way whats your point, there are a set of nearest stars as shown ...
 
..either way whats your point, ..

No idea, Henry, There is probably one in there somewhere.

I can't be bothered with 'why' games tonight.

See you all later.

UNT21
 
maybe that new yorker interviewee / scientific american piece author is a bit off his game, comes across as a bit all over the place in the middle of the interview ... or the journo was painting him that way maybe
 
maybe that new yorker interviewee / scientific american piece author is a bit off his game, comes across as a bit all over the place in the middle of the interview ... or the journo was painting him that way maybe

It seems to me that scientific articles/interviews in non-scientific publications always end up somewhat confused. All other things being equal, I'd tend to blame the journo/editing first.
 
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There's an ongoing campaign of data analysis and theorizing about what 'Oumuamua may be. The current focus seems to be on whether or not it was an extrasolar comet.
‘Oumuamua, Our First Interstellar Visitor, May Have Been a Comet After All

New research flags jets of water vapor—rather than alien technology—as the source of the mysterious object’s anomalous motions

The mysteries surrounding ‘Oumuamua, our solar system’s first known interstellar visitor, are many: How did it get here, and from where? What gave rise to its extremely elongated (circa 250 meters long), potentially cigar-like shape, which so starkly distinguishes it from any natural object ever seen orbiting the sun? And most of all, what caused it to “hit the gas” after it swooped by our star, accelerating away like a passenger-filled car that accidentally entered a bad neighborhood?

The most obvious explanation for ‘Oumuamua’s properties and behavior—particularly its anomalous acceleration—is that it is a comet from another star system, albeit a decidedly weird one. In this scenario, ‘Oumuamua would have been ejected from its home system by a gravitational interaction with a large planet, perhaps gaining its shape from the associated wrenching forces and subsequent eons of exposure to cosmic radiation. Its speedy departure from our inner solar system, then, would be due to its briefly spouting plumes of gas from its icy, light-warmed surface after its close passage by our sun. This is the explanation preferred by European Space Agency scientist Marco Micheli, University of Hawaii astronomer Karen Meech and their colleagues, who first reported ‘Oumuamua’s anomalous acceleration. ...


FULL STORY: https://www.scientificamerican.com/...llar-visitor-may-have-been-a-comet-after-all/
 
This newly published article:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0816-x.epdf

... pushes back on the Loeb & Bialy suggestion that 'Oumuamua could have been an artificial space probe by reviewing the ways the available data is consistent with a natural object. Here's the abstract:
The natural history of ‘Oumuamua
The ‘Oumuamua ISSI Team*

The discovery of the first interstellar object passing through the Solar System, 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua), provoked intense and
continuing interest from the scientific community and the general public. The faintness of ‘Oumuamua, together with the lim-
ited time window within which observations were possible, constrained the information available on its dynamics and physical
state. Here we review our knowledge and find that in all cases, the observations are consistent with a purely natural origin for
‘Oumuamua. We discuss how the observed characteristics of ‘Oumuamua are explained by our extensive knowledge of natural
minor bodies in our Solar System and our current knowledge of the evolution of planetary systems. We highlight several areas
requiring further investigation.

Edit to Add:

See also: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190701144539.htm
 
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This newly published article:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0816-x.epdf

... pushes back on the Loeb & Bialy suggestion that 'Oumuamua could have been an artificial space probe by reviewing the ways the available data is consistent with a natural object. Here's the abstract:


Edit to Add:

See also: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190701144539.htm


Despite the research, I have to admit that I like to think there's still a chance that 'Oumuamua is artificial.

And we haven't yet seen anything like 'Oumuamua in our solar system. This thing is weird and admittedly hard to explain, but that doesn't exclude other natural phenomena that could explain it.

But whatever it turns out to be, it's still interesting. :)
 
Maybe it's just a shard of a planet.

The solar system’s first recorded interstellar visitor has a new proposed origin story. The enigmatic celestial object known as ‘Oumuamua might be a shard of a planet ripped apart by its star’s gravity, researchers suggest April 13 in Nature Astronomy.

Ever since ‘Oumuamua showed up in our solar system in 2017, astronomers have struggled to explain its origin, suggesting that it might be a wayward asteroid, a comet or even an alien spacecraft (SN: 2/27/19).

Searching for other explanations, astronomers Yun Zhang at Côte d’Azur Observatory in Nice, France and Douglas Lin at the University of California, Santa Cruz developed computer simulations in which planetary bodies got too close to their parent stars.

In these simulations, objects ranging in size from comets to rocky planets orbit relatively lightweight stars. The scientists found that if these bodies repeatedly come within about 600,000 kilometers of their star — nearly 80 times as close as Mercury gets to our sun — then the star’s gravity shreds the objects, and flings the fragments into interstellar space. ...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oumuamua-broken-planet-fragment-comet-asteroid
 
Maybe it's just a shard of a planet.

The solar system’s first recorded interstellar visitor has a new proposed origin story. The enigmatic celestial object known as ‘Oumuamua might be a shard of a planet ripped apart by its star’s gravity, researchers suggest April 13 in Nature Astronomy.

Ever since ‘Oumuamua showed up in our solar system in 2017, astronomers have struggled to explain its origin, suggesting that it might be a wayward asteroid, a comet or even an alien spacecraft (SN: 2/27/19).

Searching for other explanations, astronomers Yun Zhang at Côte d’Azur Observatory in Nice, France and Douglas Lin at the University of California, Santa Cruz developed computer simulations in which planetary bodies got too close to their parent stars.

In these simulations, objects ranging in size from comets to rocky planets orbit relatively lightweight stars. The scientists found that if these bodies repeatedly come within about 600,000 kilometers of their star — nearly 80 times as close as Mercury gets to our sun — then the star’s gravity shreds the objects, and flings the fragments into interstellar space. ...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oumuamua-broken-planet-fragment-comet-asteroid
Blown up by the Death Star?
 
Here's a new hypothesis about 'Ouamuamua's nature - it was neither a comet nor an asteroid, but rather a giant chunk of molecular hydrogen.
A Hydrogen Iceberg from a Failed Star Might Have Passed through Our Solar System

Our sun is a ship; our galaxy is the sea. Moving in cosmic currents, our star completes a lap of the Milky Way every 230 million years or so, with its retinue of planets in tow. For the most part, this journey is solitary, save for the occasional close encounter with another star. But a few years ago, something remarkable seems to have occurred. While traversing this vast, magnificent ocean, our sun may have come across a cosmic iceberg, a sizable hunk of hydrogen ice adrift in space. As unlikely as this scenario might seem, given that it would involve a new type of astrophysical object that has never been seen before, the evidence is strangely compelling—and the implications are broad.

The idea is the conclusion reached by Darryl Seligman of the University of Chicago and Gregory Laughlin of Yale University in a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (a preprint is available at arXiv.org). They examined existing data on an object called ‘Oumuamua, which became the first interstellar object discovered in our solar system in October 2017. Since then there has been some debate over whether it was a comet or asteroid; no one is quite sure. Seligman and Laughlin, however, say the object was neither. “We’re proposing that ‘Oumuamua was composed of molecular hydrogen ice,” Seligman says. “Basically, it was a hydrogen iceberg.” ...

FULL STORY: https://www.scientificamerican.com/...r-might-have-passed-through-our-solar-system/
 
Here are the bibliographic particulars and pre-publication summary for the "hydrogen iceberg" hypothesis paper.
Evidence that 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua) was composed of molecular hydrogen ice

Darryl Seligman, Gregory Laughlin

`Oumuamua (I1 2017) was the first macroscopic (l∼100m) body observed to traverse the inner solar system on an unbound hyperbolic orbit. Its light curve displayed strong periodic variation, and it showed no hint of a coma or emission from molecular outgassing. Astrometric measurements indicate that 'Oumuamua experienced non-gravitational acceleration on its outbound trajectory, but energy balance arguments indicate this acceleration is inconsistent with a water ice sublimation-driven jet of the type exhibited by solar system comets. We show that all of `Oumaumua's observed properties can be explained if it contained a significant fraction of molecular hydrogen (H2) ice. H2 sublimation at a rate proportional to the incident solar flux generates a surface-covering jet that reproduces the observed acceleration. Mass wasting from sublimation leads to monotonic increase in the body axis ratio, explaining `Oumuamua's shape. Back-tracing `Oumuamua's trajectory through the Solar System permits calculation of its mass and aspect ratio prior to encountering the Sun. We show that H2-rich bodies plausibly form in the coldest dense cores of Giant Molecular Clouds, where number densities are of order n∼105, and temperatures approach the T=3K background. Post-formation exposure to galactic cosmic rays implies a τ∼100 Myr age, explaining the kinematics of `Oumuamua's inbound trajectory.

Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJL, 8 pages, 2 figures.
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Cite as:
arXiv:2005.12932 [astro-ph.EP]
(or arXiv:2005.12932v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
 
Further research suggests the hydrogen iceberg hypothesis is untenable because a frozen hydrogen mass would dissipate before escaping from its probable point of origin.
Another Twist in the Debate Over the Origins and Structure of Mysterious Interstellar Object ’Oumuamua

The debate over the origins and molecular structure of ‘Oumuamua continued with an announcement in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that despite earlier promising claims, the interstellar object is not made of molecular hydrogen ice after all.

The earlier study, published by Seligman & Laughlin in 2020—after observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope set tight limits on the outgassing of carbon-based molecules—suggested that if ‘Oumuamua were a hydrogen iceberg, then the pure hydrogen gas that gives it its rocket-like push would have escaped detection. But scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) were curious whether a hydrogen-based object could actually have made the journey from interstellar space to our solar system.

“The proposal by Seligman and Laughlin appeared promising because it might explain the extreme elongated shape of ‘Oumuamua as well as the non-gravitational acceleration. However, their theory is based on an assumption that H2 ice could form in dense molecular clouds. If this is true, H2 ice objects could be abundant in the universe, and thus would have far-reaching implications. H2 ice was also proposed to explain dark matter, a mystery of modern astrophysics,” said Dr. Thiem Hoang, senior researcher in the theoretical astrophysics group at KASI and lead author on the paper. ... Dr. Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird Professor of Science at Harvard and co-author on the paper, added, “We were suspicious that hydrogen icebergs could not survive the journey—which is likely to take hundreds of millions of years—because they evaporate too quickly, and as to whether they could form in molecular clouds.” ...

Although the study explored destruction of H2 ice by multiple mechanisms including interstellar radiation, cosmic rays, and interstellar gas, sublimation due to heating by starlight has the most destructive effect, and according to Loeb, “Thermal sublimation by collisional heating in GMCs could destroy molecular hydrogen icebergs of ‘Oumuamua-size before their escape into the interstellar medium.” ...

FULL STORY:
https://scitechdaily.com/another-tw...e-of-mysterious-interstellar-object-oumuamua/

PUBLISHED REPORT (The Astrophysical Journal Letters):
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/abab0c
 
If it's anything like the Rama series of books, we can expect another object to appear sometime, only be much less interesting than the first, fizzling out over a long period of time leaving us only with memories of how cool the first one was.
Or something.
 
Newly published research proposes that 'Oumuamua might be a cosmic "dust bunny" comprised of debris fragmented off a comet.
Interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua could actually be a cosmic dust bunny

Ever since it floated through our cosmic neck of the woods, the interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua has intrigued and perplexed scientists. Now, a new theory has emerged that the cigar-shaped space rock might actually be a dust bunny.

Here on Earth, "dust bunnies" are clumps of accumulated dust and debris held together by static electricity that float around under furniture, pushed by passing breezes. But, the scientists behind a new study suggest that 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever spotted in our solar system, could be (basically) a scaled-up dust bunny.

The study, led by Jane Luu, an astronomer at the University of Oslo in Norway, suggests that the interstellar space rock could have formed from dust blown off the nucleus of a comet outside of our solar system. This rock, an accumulation of rock and dust from the comet, would be pushed through space by solar radiation and eventually take a short tour of our solar system. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/oumuamua-could-be-cosmic-dust-bunny.html
 
Here are the bibliographic details and abstract of the new "dust bunny" publication ...

Oumuamua as a Cometary Fractal Aggregate: The "Dust Bunny" Model
Jane X. Luu, Eirik G. Flekkøy, and Renaud Toussaint
Published 2020 September 4 • © 2020.
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 900, Number 2

Abstract
The first known interstellar object, 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua, displayed such unusual properties that its origin remains a subject of much debate. We propose that 'Oumuamua's properties could be explained as those of a fractal dust aggregate (a "dust bunny") formed in the inner coma of a fragmenting exo-Oort cloud comet. Such fragments could serve as accretion sites by accumulating dust particles, resulting in the formation of a fractal aggregate. The fractal aggregate eventually breaks off from the fragment due to hydrodynamic stress. With their low density and tenuously bound orbits, most of these cometary fractal aggregates are then ejected into interstellar space by radiation pressure.

SOURCE: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/abafa7
 
A bit long to post, but:-

A Harvard professor says an alien visited in 2017 — and more are coming.

When the first sign of intelligent life first visits us from space, it won’t be a giant saucer hovering over New York. More likely, it will be an alien civilization’s trash.

Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy, believes he’s already found some of that garbage.

In his upcoming book, “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), out Jan. 26, the professor lays out a compelling case for why an object that recently wandered into our solar system was not just another rock but actually a piece of alien technology.

The object in question traveled toward our solar system from the direction of Vega, a nearby star 25 light-years away, and intercepted our solar system’s orbital plane on Sept. 6, 2017.

On Sept. 9, its trajectory brought it closest to the sun. At the end of September, it blasted at about 58,900 miles per hour past Venus’ orbital distance, and then, on Oct. 7, it shot past Earth’s before “moving swiftly toward the constellation Pegasus and the blackness beyond,” Loeb writes in the book.

The object was first spotted by an observatory in Hawaii containing the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) — the highest definition telescope on earth.

The space object was dubbed ‘Oumuamua (pronounced “oh moo ah moo ah”), which is Hawaiian for — roughly — “scout.”

As space travelers go, it was relatively small at just about 100 yards long, but it was a big deal in the scientific community.

For starters, it was the first interstellar object ever detected inside our solar system. Judging from the object’s trajectory, astronomers concluded it was not bound by the sun’s gravity — which suggested it was just traveling through.

No crisp photos could be taken, but astronomers were able to train their telescopes on the object for 11 days, collecting reams of other data.

At first, scientists thought it was an ordinary comet. But Loeb said that assumption ran the risk of allowing “the familiar to define what we might discover.”

“What would happen if a caveman saw a cellphone?” he asked. “He’s seen rocks all his life, and he would have thought it was just a shiny rock.”

Loeb soon opened his mind to another possibility: It was not a comet but discarded tech from an alien civilization.

A number of unusual properties about the object helped Loeb make this conclusion.

First were ‘Oumuamua’s dimensions.

Astronomers looked at the way the object reflected sunlight. Its brightness varied tenfold every eight hours, suggesting that was the amount of time it took for it to complete a full rotation.

Scientists concluded the object was at least five to ten times longer than it was wide — sort of like the shape of a cigar.

No naturally occurring space body we’ve ever seen has looked like it — or even close.

“This would make ‘Oumuamua’s geometry more extreme by at least a few times in aspect ratio — or its width to its height — than the most extreme asteroids or comets that we have ever seen,” Loeb writes in his book.

What’s more, ‘Oumuamua was unusually bright. It was at least “ten times more reflective than typical solar system [stony] asteroids or comets,” the author writes.

He likens its surface to that of shiny metal.

But the anomaly that really pushed Loeb toward his E.T. hypothesis was the way ‘Oumuamua moved.

“The excess push away from the sun — that was the thing that broke the camel’s back,” he said.

Using physics, scientists can calculate the exact path an object should take and what speed it should travel due to the gravitational force exerted by the sun. The sun’s pull will speed up an object massively as it gets closer, then kick it out the other side, only for the object to slow considerably as it gets farther away.

But ‘Oumuamua didn’t follow this calculated trajectory. The object, in fact, accelerated “slightly, but to a highly statistically significant extent,” Loeb writes, as it moved away from the sun.

In other words, it was clearly being pushed by a force besides the sun’s gravity alone.

At first the explanation seemed simple. Comets show a similar acceleration, because as they approach the sun, their surface is warmed, releasing once-frozen gases, which act like a rocket engine.

Those released materials, however, form a comet’s distinctive tail. Scientists looked carefully for that tail or any sign of gases or dust that might propel ‘Oumuamua and came up empty.

Loeb calculated that with these and other anomalies, the chances that ‘Oumuamua was some random comet was around one in a quadrillion, leading him to his blockbuster hypothesis.

But what was it exactly?

One possibility, weirdly enough, could be found in technology we already have here on earth.

Some 400 years ago, astronomer Johannes Kepler observed comet tails blowing in what looked like a solar breeze and wondered if that same force could propel rocket ships through space like the wind pushes boats through water.

It was a smart idea that scientists now use to develop light sails for probes. Thin, reflective sheeting is unfurled in space to capture the particles streaming off the sun, propelling a ship at great speeds through the empty void. Alternatively, powerful lasers from earth could be aimed at the sail to make it go even faster.

Loeb, who is involved in a light-sail project to send a tiny, unmanned craft to a nearby star, said if we earthlings have thought of this idea, then why couldn’t aliens?

He and a colleague crunched the numbers and hypothesized that ‘Oumuamua was not actually cigar-shaped but possibly a disk less than a millimeter thick, with sail-like proportions that would account for its unusual acceleration as it moved away from the sun.

As to its purpose, Loeb isn’t entirely sure. He speculated it could be “space junk” that once served as a kind of space navigation buoy used by a long-ago civilization.

“The only way to look for [alien civilizations] is to look for their trash, like investigative journalists who look through celebrities’ trash,” Loeb said.

Of course, not everyone in the scientific community agrees with his theory.

In July 2019, the ‘Oumuamua Team of the International Space Science Institute published an article in Nature Astronomy concluding, “We find no compelling evidence to favor an alien explanation for ‘Oumuamua.”

Loeb admits his theories have raised astronomers’ eyebrows, but he is resolute about his findings. “Some people do not want to discuss the possibility that there are other civilizations out there,” he told The Post. “They believe we are special and unique. I think it’s a prejudice that should be abandoned.”

Loeb said the skeptics are bending over backwards to assign natural origins to the object and that the explanations they’ve given to explain its weird properties don’t stand up to scrutiny.

For example, some scientists have suggested that ‘Oumuamua’s acceleration was caused by frozen hydrogen on its surface turning to gas and driving it like a comet, and that hydrogen would have been invisible to Earth’s infrared cameras, which is why we didn’t detect it.

But Loeb and a colleague published a paper showing that “a hydrogen iceberg traveling through interstellar space would evaporate long before it reached our solar system.”

Whatever the truth, the stakes are high.

The acceptance that an alien race has made contact — even through its trash — would trigger a serious search for more trash, leading us to scour the moon and Mars, for example, for debris that might have crash-landed thousands or millions of years ago.

And if more evidence is found, we earthlings would have to start building tools to help us grapple with extraterrestrials, such as space treaties and academic fields like astro-linguistics and astro-economics.

But, perhaps more important, any further discoveries could redefine our place in the universe.

It would put us in perspective,” Loeb said. “If we are not alone, are we the smartest kids on the block? If there was a species that eliminated itself through war or changing the climate, we can get our act together and behave better. Instead, we are wasting a lot of resources on Earth fighting each other and other negative things that are a big waste.”

Since ‘Oumuamua’s appearance, a second interstellar object known as 2I/Borisov was spotted entering the solar system by a Crimean telescope in 2019. But that turned out to be a plain old comet.

Until recently, our instruments have not been sensitive enough to pick up these kinds of visitors. But Loeb said technology will soon make it possible to locate more space travelers, and the only way the mystery of ‘Oumuamua will be settled is if a similar object is spotted and more thoroughly investigated with a probe.

He said his book “should motivate people to collect more data on the next object that looks weird.”

“If we find another and we take a photo and it looks like a light sail, I don’t think anyone will argue with that.”

Source: https://nypost.com/2021/01/02/a-harvard-professor-says-an-alien-visited-in-2017/
 
A bit long to post, but:-

A Harvard professor says an alien visited in 2017 — and more are coming.



Source: https://nypost.com/2021/01/02/a-harvard-professor-says-an-alien-visited-in-2017/

From the interviews I've heard he never said that, he said it could have been something designed by a long-perished civilization. Not actual aliens that's a significant distinction.

This makes sense if you consider Voyager missions and he reckons spaceships that weigh a couple of grams can get to Proxima Centauri and beam back pictures within 24 years.
 
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From the interviews I've heard he never said that, he said it could have been something designed by a long-perished civilization. Not actual aliens that's a significant distinction.
It seems doubtful to have possibly been something designed by a long-perished Earth based civilization. If one were to have come to the conclusion it's not a natural object that doesn't seem to leave much room for much else other than aliens.
 
It seems doubtful to have possibly been something designed by a long-perished Earth based civilization. If one were to have come to the conclusion it's not a natural object that doesn't seem to leave much room for much else other than aliens.

No I mean he doesn't think it's piloted by aliens more likely unmannered probe/drone.
 
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, then it must be a duck.

This thing was not influenced by the sun’s gravity.

Captain Kirk, there be aliens !

It probably looked at us as a dead water world, or maybe us humans were too barbaric to contact.

This Hawaiian name means “ scout “.

Maybe the mothership is coming ?
 
What makes you think it wasn't affected by the Sun's gravity?
 
Isn't the professor contradicting himself regarding the shape? Both saying it's an elongated structure, but also that it's some kind of thin solar sail? Surely those are not made cylindrical?
 
My interpretation of the article is that our sun always captures these kinds of things, but Oumuamua just increased speed and went on out of our solar system, and not going into an orbit around our sun.

Supposedly this went against all math calculations of its orbit and against all logic !

But I am UFO “ junky “ from a young age, and even though earth people will not accept that we are not alone, humanoids live among us.

My opinion is that we are dealing with other realities running into each other and maybe there is a huge civilizations under the sea(USOs).

The earth is 2/3rds water hidding a lot of land.
 
... This thing was not influenced by the sun’s gravity. ...
My interpretation of the article is that our sun always captures these kinds of things, but Oumuamua just increased speed and went on out of our solar system, and not going into an orbit around our sun.
Supposedly this went against all math calculations of its orbit and against all logic ! ...

Sorry - no ...

Oumuamua was clearly influenced by the sun's gravity because (a) it sped up as it approached perihelion (closest approach to the sun) and (b) its trajectory bent into a sharp hyperbolic turn exactly as would have been predicted by solar gravitational effect.

The sun does not, and can not, always capture anything that happens to pass through its vicinity. It can't permanently capture anything that's already moving too fast to be reined in and captured as a new piece of the solar system (i.e., anything that already exhibits escape velocity). The sun's gravitational pull could bend this object's trajectory, but it couldn't brake the object enough to prevent its escape.

Indeed, the sun didn't brake Oumuamua at all ... Subsequent modeling and simulations consistently indicate Oumuamua accelerated during its close encounter with our sun, representing the same sort of 'slingshot effect' (in terms of both trajectory and speed) that we exploit with planetary probes.

Without knowing Oumuamua's mass we can't be precise about the degree to which the sun accelerated it. The 'excess acceleration' folks are trying to explain is the amount by which the object's speed exceeded what the models and simulations suggest. There remains the possibility this excess acceleration represents an artifact of the modeling / simulations and merely approximated data rather than an anomalous fact.

Oumuamua was already traveling so fast, and entering from such an angle relative to our solar system's 'plane', that it was recognized as an interstellar object destined to leave our solar system behind almost immediately after it was discovered.
 
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