Cosima is a small, bright moon of Saturn. It was discovered in 2004 by the Cassini spacecraft and named after Cosimo de Medici, an Italian Renaissance leader. The Cassini orbiter (which includes the Huygens probe) has been studying Saturn and its moons since arriving there in 2004.
Cosima is one of Saturn’s smaller moons, measuring just over 10 kilometers (6 miles) across. It is mostly made of water ice, with a dark coating of organic material on its surface. This moon is thought to be very young, as it doesn’t show any signs of impact craters. Its surface may also be covered in a thin layer of ice that forms when methane gas from Saturn’s atmosphere condenses onto the cold surface.
This tiny moon orbits Saturn every 16 days at a distance of about 1 million kilometers (620,000 miles). Cosima shares its orbit with two other small moons: Pallene and Methone. These three moons are sometimes called the “Pallas trio”.