The asteroid named after Pandora in Greek mythology is numbered 55 Pandora.
55 Pandora is a main-belt asteroid discovered by George Mary Searle on September 10, 1858, at the Albany Observatory in New York. It received the name Pandora after the mythological first woman associated with the jar of troubles. The number 55 reflects its place in the sequence of numbered minor planets, not its discovery date or size ranking.
The asteroid belongs to the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is not the same object as Pandora, one of Saturn’s small moons, although both bodies share a mythological name. That distinction is a frequent source of confusion in astronomy discussions.
The designation is written “55 Pandora,” with the number preceding the name. Astronomical names often preserve mythological figures, but the shared name does not imply that two objects are physically related.