The asteroid named Pandora has the catalogue number 55, so its formal designation is 55 Pandora. It is a main-belt asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
George Mary Searle discovered Pandora on 10 September 1858 from the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York. The name refers to Pandora from Greek mythology, continuing the long tradition of naming Solar System bodies after mythological figures.
55 Pandora is classified as an S-type asteroid, a broad category associated with a stony composition. Like other main-belt asteroids, it follows a heliocentric orbit rather than orbiting a planet.
The number is not a year or a measure of size. It is the sequential minor-planet number assigned after the object’s orbit was confirmed. Pandora is therefore distinct from Saturn’s moon Pandora and from the fictional moon in Avatar.