Which spacecraft first photographed Saturn’s moon Pandora in 1980?

Voyager 1 first photographed Saturn’s moon Pandora in 1980.

Pandora was discovered in images returned by Voyager 1 during its encounter with Saturn. The discovery came in October 1980, when the spacecraft was surveying Saturn and its rings. Voyager 1’s observations revealed several previously unknown small moons, including Pandora, which was later recognized as an outer shepherd of Saturn’s narrow F ring.

Voyager 2 also visited Saturn, but it arrived after Voyager 1 and therefore was not the spacecraft credited with Pandora’s discovery. Cassini later spent years studying Saturn, its rings, and its moons in far greater detail, but it did not make the original discovery.

The moon’s name comes from Pandora in Greek mythology. Its neighboring F-ring shepherd, Prometheus, carries another mythological name, making the pair especially appropriate for a question about Pandora. The astronomical object and the ancient myth are linked by naming, not by any physical connection.