The asteroid Pandora was assigned the number 55 as a numbered minor planet.
Its formal designation is 55 Pandora, indicating that it was the fifty-fifth minor planet to receive a number in the historical numbering sequence. George Mary Searle discovered it in 1858 at the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York. The number is part of the object’s astronomical designation and is not a measurement of its size or distance from the Sun.
Pandora is a main-belt asteroid with an orbit between those of Mars and Jupiter. Like many asteroids, it is named from mythology; its name references the Greek figure connected with the famous jar story.
The number can be confused with other Pandora objects, including Saturn’s moon Pandora and the asteroid’s catalog entries in modern databases. The numeral 55 specifically identifies this asteroid among numbered minor planets.