It was discovered in 1908 by Philibert Jacques Melotte[1][10] and later named after the mythological Pasiphaë, wife of Minos and mother of the Minotaur from Greek legend.

It received the provisional designation 1908 CJ, as it was not clear whether it was an asteroid or a moon of Jupiter.

The diagram illustrates its orbit in relation to other retrograde irregular satellites of Jupiter.

The eccentricity of selected orbits is represented by the yellow segments (extending from the pericentre to the apocentre).

[17][18] The satellite appears pale red (colour indices V=17.22 B-V=0.74, R-V=0.38) though it falls into the grey color-class of C-type asteroids.