Pandora was discovered by American astronomer and Catholic priest George Mary Searle on September 10, 1858, from the Dudley Observatory near Albany, NY.

It is named after Pandora, the first woman in Greek mythology, who unwisely opened a box that released evil into the world.

This object is orbiting the Sun with a period of 4.58 years, a semimajor axis of 2.76 AU, and an eccentricity of 0.14.

Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Rozhen Observatory in Bulgaria during 2010 gave a light curve with a period of 4.7992 hours and a brightness variation of Δm=0.22 mag.

This is consistent with a period of 4.804 hours and an amplitude of 0.24 obtained during a 1977 study.