Which Saturnian moon shares Pandora’s name but is not the asteroid 55 Pandora?

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The Saturnian moon that shares Pandora’s name with asteroid 55 Pandora is Pandora.

Pandora is a small inner moon of Saturn. Voyager 1 images confirmed it in 1980, after it had been detected in photographs taken during the spacecraft’s encounter with Saturn. It is classified as an outer shepherd satellite of Saturn’s narrow F ring.

Pandora is often discussed together with Prometheus, another small Saturnian moon. Their gravitational effects help shape and confine the F ring, although each moon has a different orbit and role. The moon’s name comes from Pandora in Greek mythology.

This object is not the same as 55 Pandora, the asteroid discovered in 1858. Astronomers distinguish them by context: the moon is identified as Pandora or Saturn XVII, while the asteroid carries the number 55.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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