Pandora is the Saturn moon named after the woman in the Pandora myth.
The moon Pandora was discovered in 1980 in images returned by Voyager 1. It is a small, irregular satellite that orbits near Saturn’s F ring and helps act as a shepherd satellite for the ring system. Its mythological name follows a long astronomical tradition of naming planetary moons after figures from classical mythology.
Pandora is not Saturn’s only mythological moon with a connection to the Prometheus story. Prometheus, another Saturnian moon, shares the system and is named for the Titan who stole fire. Epimetheus is also nearby, but its name belongs to Pandora’s mythological family rather than being Pandora herself.
The astronomical Pandora is therefore distinct from both the mythological character and the idiom “Pandora’s box.” The shared name is the link among all three uses.