9th Largest Asteroid, 65 Cybele

65 Cybele is one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System and is located in the outer asteroid belt. It is the 9th largest asteroid currently known.

Discovery

Cybele was discovered on March 8, 1861, by Ernst Wilhelm Tempel from the Marseilles Observatory.

Naming

A minor controversy arose from its naming process. Tempel had awarded the honour of naming the asteroid to Carl August von Steinheil in recognition of his achievements in telescope production. Von Steinheil elected to name it "Maximiliana" after the reigning monarch Maximilian II of Bavaria. At the time, asteroids were conventionally given classical names, and a number of astronomers protested this contemporary appellation.

The name Cybele was chosen instead. Cybele was the Phrygian goddess of the earth.

Stats

Diameter (mean): 273 km
Semi-major axis: 3.433 AU
Orbital Period: 6.36 years
Rotation period: 4.04 hrs
Date discovered: 1861.3.8
Class: C
Group: Cybele group
Type: Outer Main-belt Asteroid
Satellite: 1 ?

Orbit

Cybele gives its name to the family of asteroids located beyond the core of the asteroid belt.

Cybele asteroids are a group of asteroids in the outer main belt with a semi-major axis between 3.27 AU and 3.7 AU, an eccentricity less than 0.3, and an inclination less than 25°. As of 2010, the group is thought to have been formed by the breakup of larger object in the distant past.

Physical characteristics

Cybele is a C-type asteroid. It is dark in color, carbonaceous in composition and appeared to have an irregular shape.

In the 1979 Cybelian stellar occultation, a hint of a possible 11 km wide satellite was detected.

Life?

Researchers have revealed that after 24 Themis, 65 Cybele also contains traces of water and complex, long-chained organic molecules.

Those traits had been associated with comets, which spring from colder, more distant reservoirs in the outer solar system, but not their asteroidal cousins. The finding supports the notion that asteroids could have provided early Earth with water for its oceans as well as some of the prebiotic compounds that allowed life to develop.