Pandora is the Saturn moon named after the mythological Pandora, distinct from asteroid 55 Pandora.
Pandora is a small moon of Saturn discovered in photographs taken by Voyager 1 in 1980. It is one of the planet’s outer shepherd satellites and helps confine Saturn’s narrow F ring together with the moon Prometheus. Its irregular shape and proximity to the ring system make it an important object in studies of ring dynamics.
The moon’s name comes from Greek mythology, but it should not be confused with the similarly named asteroid 55 Pandora. The asteroid was discovered in 1858, while the Saturnian moon was identified more than a century later from spacecraft images.
Mimas, Rhea, and Phoebe are also Saturnian moons, but they are different bodies with different orbits and mythological names. Pandora’s relationship with Prometheus is a naming and orbital parallel.