55 Pandora is a fairly large and very bright asteroid in the asteroid belt. Pandora was discovered by George Mary Searle on September 10, 1858 from the Dudley Observatory near Albany, NY. It was his first and only asteroid discovery.
It is named after Pandora, the first woman in Greek mythology, who unwisely opened a box that released evil into the world. The name was apparently chosen by Blandina Dudley, widow of the founder of the Dudley Observatory, who had been involved in an acrimonious dispute with astronomer B. A. Gould. Gould felt that the name had an "apt significance". The asteroid shares its name with Pandora, a moon of Saturn.
Recent analysis has identified Pandora as the second-largest of the E-type asteroids, after 44 Nysa.