(65) Cybele VLT/SPHERE disk-resolved images

Notably, its shape and rotation state are closely compatible with those of a Maclaurin equilibrium figure. The lack of a collisional family associated with Cybele and the higher bulk density of that body with respect to other large P-type asteroids suggest that it never experienced any large disruptive impact followed by rapid re-accumulation. This would imply that its present-day shape represents the original one.

However, numerical integration of the long-term dynamical evolution of a hypothetical family of Cybele shows that it is dispersed by gravitational perturbations and chaotic diffusion over gigayears of evolution. The very close match between Cybele and an equilibrium figure opens up the possibility that D>=260km (M>=1.5x10^19^kg) small bodies from the outer Solar System all formed at equilibrium. However, we cannot currently rule out an old impact as the origin of the equilibrium shape of Cybele.

Cybele itself is found to be dynamically unstable, implying that it was "recently" (<1Gyr ago) placed on its current orbit either through slow diffusion from a relatively stable orbit in the Cybele region or, less likely, from an unstable, Jupiter-family-comet orbit in the planet-crossing region.