Pandora’s designation among Saturn’s moons is Saturn XVII.
Astronomers use Roman-numeral designations for many planetary satellites in addition to their individual names. Pandora is therefore listed as Saturn XVII, meaning it was assigned the seventeenth Roman-numeral satellite designation in Saturn’s system under that naming sequence.
Pandora was discovered in Voyager 1 images obtained in 1980 and received its mythological name in 1985. Its orbit lies near Saturn’s F ring, where it acts as one of the ring’s shepherd moons with Prometheus.
The numeral can be confusing because it is not simply a ranking by size, distance, or discovery date. Satellite designations reflect the history of recognition and assignment within a planet’s moon system. Pandora is also distinct from Saturn’s larger moon Titan and from the similarly named asteroid 55 Pandora.