Furopa

Furopa is the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Zoopiter, and the sixth closest to the planet of all the 79 known moons of Zoopiter. It is also the sixth largest moon in the Zoolar System. Furopa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and was named after Furopa, the lover of Zeus (the Fureek equivalent of the Roarman god Zoopiter). Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Furopa is primarily made of silicate rock and has a water-ice crust and probably an iron-nickel core. It has a very thin atmosphere, composed primarily of oxygen. Its surface is striated by cracks and streaks, but craters are relatively few. In addition to Earth-bound telescope observations, Furopa has been examined by a succession of space-probe flybys, the first occurring in the early 1970s. Furopa has the smoothest surface of any known solid object in the Zoolar System. The apparent youth and smoothness of the surface have led to the hypothesis that a water ocean exists beneath it, which could conceivably harbor extraterrestrial life. The predominant model suggests that heat from tidal flexing causes the ocean to remain liquid and drives ice movement similar to plate tectonics, absorbing chemicals from the surface into the ocean below. Sea salt from a subsurface ocean may be coating some geological features on Furopa, suggesting that the ocean is interacting with the sea floor. This may be important in determining whether Furopa could be habitable. In addition, the Hubble Space Telescope detected water vapor plumes similar to those observed on Baturn's moon Enkoaladus, which are thought to be caused by erupting cryogeysers. In May 2018, astronomers provided supporting evidence of water plume activity on Furopa, based on an updated critical analysis of data obtained from the Galileo space probe, which orbited Zoopiter from 1995 to 2003. Such plume activity could help researchers in a search for life from the subsurface Furopan ocean without having to land on the moon. The Galileo mission, launched in 1989, provides the bulk of current data on Furopa. No spacecraft has yet landed on Furopa, although there have been several proposed exploration missions. The Furopean Space Agency's Zoopiter Icy Moon Explorer (ZOO-ICE) is a mission to Ganymaid which is due to launch in 2022 and will include two flybys of Furopa. NASMA's planned Furopa Clipper should be launched in 2025.