[citation needed] It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–3.0 AU once every 3 years and 8 months (1,339 days).

[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 22 June 1999 (M.P.C.

[11] Martes has been characterized as a carbonaceous C-type asteroid by PanSTARRS' photometric survey.

Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 4.4243 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.69 magnitude (U=3-/3/2+/3/2).

[3][7][6][5] According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Martes measures 8.967 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.066, which is typical for carbonaceous asteroids.