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Score breakdown
· 6 badges
40 pts · Rare
Rare50 pts → Epic
Primitive outer-belt type+12
Darker than charcoal+10
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score40
10 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
🪨Asteroid· +1
💡Notably bright (low H)· +8
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🥌Main-belt asteroid· +1
🕶️Darker than charcoal· +10
🦖Primitive outer-belt type· +12
✨ Trivia
What it actually is
🛸Its orbit family. A main-belt asteroid, one of millions circling between Mars and Jupiter. Despite the films, the belt is so empty that every spacecraft sent through it has crossed without aiming for anything.
🌞Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 2.38 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 5.5 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.38 and 3.84 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 3.4× the length of Manhattan island.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 5.8 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 18% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 74.3 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.032
aphelion au
3.84
designation
746
diameter km
74.274
eccentricity
0.2352
full name
746 Marlu (A913 EJ)
h mag
9.94
inclination
17.48
mean motion deg day
0.1796
moid au
1.41
name
Marlu
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.379
rotation period h
7.787
semi major au
3.111
spec taxonomy
P
spect
P
About Marlu
Marlu is a rare asteroid. It has spectral type P and swings within 2.379 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A main-belt asteroid, one of millions circling between Mars and Jupiter. Despite the films, the belt is so empty that every spacecraft sent through it has crossed without aiming for anything.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Marlu is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. Because it moves against the background stars, the live position panel on this page tracks where it is right now. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why Marlu is a rare asteroid
Marlu scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Asteroid, Notably bright (low H), Has a proper name, Main-belt asteroid, Darker than charcoal and Primitive outer-belt type — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.