(November 21, 2018 at 4:16 am)ignoramus Wrote: Why couldn't it something as simple as some smaller object hitting it and slightly steering it off course?
The answer to that is velocity. Nothing in this solar system except the sun could have accelerated Oumuamua to the speed it was moving when it was detected. The trajectory was wrong for it to have been accelerated by our star. It came from the direction of Vega, that doesn't mean it originated there, and is now headed in the direction of Pegasus.
Save a life. Adopt a greyhound.