What number designates the asteroid Pandora, discovered in 1858?

The asteroid Pandora, discovered in 1858, is designated 55 Pandora.

55 Pandora is a main-belt asteroid discovered by the American astronomer George Mary Searle at the Albany Observatory in New York. Its name honors Pandora from Greek mythology. The number 55 records its place in the sequence of numbered minor planets, not its size or year of discovery.

Astronomical designations can be confusing because an object may have both a number and a name. In this case, “55” is the permanent minor-planet number assigned after the orbit was sufficiently established, while Pandora is the adopted name.

The asteroid is unrelated to Saturn’s moon Pandora and to the fictional world in Avatar. Those objects share a mythological name but belong to different categories and were discovered or created in different contexts.