The official designation of Pandora, the 35th asteroid discovered, is 55 Pandora. The asteroid was discovered by George Mary Searle on September 10, 1858, at the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York.
The number 55 records its position in the historical sequence of asteroid discoveries, while Pandora is its name. It is a stony asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Like many asteroids, it is identified by both a number and a proper name because numbering provides a stable catalog reference.
The asteroid is unrelated to Saturn’s moon Pandora except for sharing the mythological name. It is also distinct from the fictional world Pandora in modern popular culture. Astronomical naming can therefore create several objects with the same mythological source, making the full designation important when precision matters.