Determining Orbital Elements of Asteroid Psyche Using Ant Colony Optimization from Single-Night Astrometric Observation

Abstract

The determination of asteroid orbital elements from limited astrometric data is a challenging inverse problem in celestial mechanics. In this study, we demonstrate the use of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), a metaheuristic inspired by swarm intelligence, to solve Kepler's equation and derive the orbital elements of asteroid (16) Psyche from right ascension (RA) and declination (Dec) observations acquired over a single night. The algorithm minimizes the residuals between observed and predicted RA/Dec positions by exploring the solution space of five Keplerian orbital parameters. The value for a, e, i, Ω, and ω are 2.91313 AU, 0.13232, 3.35354o, 294.54545o, and 151.51515o respectively. These resulting orbital elements exhibit strong agreement with reference values from NASA's JPL Small-Body Database Lookup. This study highlights the potential of swarm-based optimization techniques for initial orbit determination, especially in cases with sparse observational data. The findings suggest that even minimal observational input, when combined with robust optimization algorithms, can yield accurate orbital solutions. Future work may expand this approach to longer observational arcs or other minor bodies to assess its generalizability and performance in different dynamical contexts.