Orbit of formic mothership
The ground and space telescope observations of the mothership made it possible to calculate a rough orbit. Here are the preliminary details:
Orbit date = 2077/11/14
Eccentricity = 1.27
Perihelion = 1.00074 AU
Inclination = 31.4 degrees (south of/below ecliptic)
The orbit has led me to conclude that the mothership arrives from near the apparent position of the galactic plane, but much closer- which would explain why we had not found their planet of origin. Based on extrapolational estimates (which are likely in error), the ship has been traveling here for the last 130 years.
An interesting side note- the Formics’ home system appears to be have been emitting detectable X-rays for at least 100 years. We had so many chances to find them before they found us, but we missed them all.