The asteroid Pandora, the 55th numbered minor planet, is designated 55 Pandora.
55 Pandora is a main-belt asteroid named after Pandora, the figure from Greek mythology. It was discovered in 1858 by the American astronomer George Mary Searle at the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York. The number 55 reflects its position in the sequence of minor planets that had been assigned permanent numbers at the time.
Asteroid names are not the same as official numerical designations. “Pandora” is the name, while “55” identifies the object in the numbered minor-planet catalog. This distinction prevents confusion with Pandora, a moon of Saturn, which is a separate astronomical body.
The asteroid belongs to the broad population of objects orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. It should also not be confused with 2 Pallas, 3 Juno, or other early numbered asteroids named from classical mythology. The mythological name connects the object to ancient culture, but the asteroid itself is an independent body in the Solar System.