The full designation of the asteroid Pandora, discovered in 1858, is 55 Pandora. It is a main-belt asteroid whose name refers to Pandora, the figure from Greek mythology.
The asteroid was discovered by the German astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt on September 10, 1858, from Paris. Its number, 55, records its place in the sequence of minor planets recognized and numbered by astronomers. As with other numbered asteroids, the designation combines the discovery number with the assigned name.
55 Pandora belongs to the S-type group of asteroids and has been studied through astronomical observations, including measurements of its brightness and rotation. It should not be confused with Pandora, a moon of Saturn discovered much later, or with the fictional moon in James Cameron’s Avatar. Those objects share the mythological name but are different bodies.