Asteroid number 55 that shares its name with the woman from the Greek Pandora myth is 55 Pandora. It is a relatively large main-belt asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
French astronomer George Mary Searle discovered Pandora on 10 September 1858 from the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York. Its designation, 55, reflects its place among the numbered minor planets known at the time.
Asteroid Pandora is not the same object as Pandora, Saturn’s moon. The asteroid travels around the Sun in the main asteroid belt, whereas the moon circles Saturn and is associated with the planet’s F ring.
The mythological name follows a long astronomical tradition of assigning names from Greek and Roman mythology to minor planets. Pandora’s physical properties are studied through observations of its brightness, rotation, and effects on starlight.