Pandora is an inner satellite of Saturn. It was discovered in 1980 from photos taken by the Voyager 1 probe and was provisionally designated . In late 1985, it was officially named after Pandora from Greek mythology. It is also designated as .
Pandora was thought to be an outer shepherd satellite of the F Ring. However, recent studies indicate that it does not play such a role, and that only Prometheus, the inner shepherd, contributes to the confinement of the narrow ring. It is more heavily cratered than nearby Prometheus and has at least two large craters in diameter. The majority of craters on Pandora are shallow as a result of being filled with debris. Ridges and grooves are also present on the moon's surface.
The orbit of Pandora appears to be chaotic as a consequence of a series of four 118:121 mean-motion resonances with Prometheus. The most appreciable changes in their orbits occur approximately every 6.2 years, when the periapsis of Pandora lines up with the apoapsis of Prometheus and the moons approach to within about . Pandora also has a 3:2 mean-motion resonance with Mimas, and also a 21:19 mean-motion resonance with Epimetheus, but only while it is on the outer orbit relative to Janus. No such configuration with Janus exists.
Due to their gravitational interactions with the rings, Prometheus and Pandora are expected to crash into each other or Mimas in the next 20 million years.
From its very low density and relatively high albedo, it seems likely that Pandora is a very porous icy body. However, there is much uncertainty in these values, so this remains to be confirmed.