...for a course adjustment.

I seem to recall a scenario like that.

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I am from the nut fringe that accept the possibility of the existence of a fifth force of nature. One of the features of that force is that any beings that know of it's existence can then figure out how to copy and modulate that force in spacecraft, making those space craft capable of moving at enormous speed over vast distances in galaxial terms (3-10 Parsecs in a year or less).

If someone does know that we are here, hope that they are peaceful, because if they are not count on one thing for sure, republicans will betray us to try to gain favor with the aliens. Of course, if they are peaceful, zenlike beings, republicans won't be cool with that, but can't do crap about them.

...the odds heavily favor it being naturally occurring rock, metal, and ice.

Look at the trouble we have generated on our home planet. Imagine the havoc we will cause when we go outside of our solar system.

Not sure why everyone tends to think an intelligent race would want to friend us. If they don't look anything like us (think cetaceans) we are likely to harpoon them.

Please. Soon.

Bonus points if a female alien does the probing.

I won't do anything wrong Haaa

...so really all they have to do is just leave us alone.

Why no?

Similar to comet bodies out-gassing, just not in the visible spectrum.
This is an observed phenomena familiar to planetary scientists.
If Oumuamua were decelerating, that would be remarkable.
It's a shame we were not in a better position to examine it closely.

there is any alien intelligence there.

I'll even submit to their, um, probing.

Remember, only one piece of carry on luggage per passenger.

I'll get back to you later!

It's pretty interesting. It's fun seeing "Littlefinger" in a new role as well.

to the queen of argentine ants or amazon termites.

do not remotely think that object is some alien artifact. It simply didn't behave even remotely like that. Yes, they know that it came from outside our solar system, and so is the first object we've known of that is extra-solar, but it wasn't travelling anywhere near fast enough to have been under power of any kind.

Oh, and the picture at the top of the article is an artist's rendition, not an actual picture.

If there were anything that had any realistic chance of being from some alien civilization out there, the astronomers of the world would be the very first to broadcast that far and wide.

I wish every time the media used one, they would be obligated to put that on the picture. We aren't even certain that it was a single body. As you said the object is easily explained by our current knowledge of astrophysics.

The most parsimonious explanation is the best explanation to go with. Occam's razor.

And its trajectory cannot be explained by gravity or cometary ice effects.

“It means that there is no evidence of gas that relates to the evaporation of ice. We don’t see the telltale signatures of cometary tail. Moreover, if it was cometary activity, then we would expect the spin period of this object to change, and we don’t see that. All of these things are indicative of the fact that it is nothing like a comet that we have seen before in the solar system. And it is also nothing like an asteroid. Its brightness varies by a factor of ten, and the maximum you typically observe is a factor of three. It has a much more extreme geometry, and there is some other force pushing it. The question is, what’s providing this force, and that was the trigger for our paper.”

The trajectory can be explained, even if not by gravity or cometary ice effects. It started out a very, very long way away, so far away that they simply can't figure out where it originated. The fact that it is not at all like comets or asteroids we've seen before in the solar system is essentially a non fact. First off, it comes from well outside the solar system. Secondly, astronomers discover new things and figure out new things about old stuff all the time.

Even noted astronomers get things wrong.

Fred Hole, the astronomer who coined the phrase "Big Bang" came up with it because he thought the notion of the Universe having its origin in a giant explosion was so ridiculous that he wanted a phrase that would appropriately (to him) belittle the idea. Instead, it became the accepted name for an event that every astronomer accepts as having happen, even though to the end of his life he remained convinced that it hadn't.

And I mean *genuine* altruism, a sharing of knowledge WITHOUT requiring something in return: land, treasure, crops and crop stores, natural resources, enslavement, subjugation, etc.

One would have to hope that such impulses and actions would be completely foreign to any visiting extraterrestrials.