Voyager scientist Ed Stone on the search for extraterrestrial life: 'We need to get back to Enceladus'

Physics professor reflects on career ranging from most distant object to closest approach to the sun

The Voyager mission has not lacked for highlights, having beamed back the first glimpses of methane oceans, erupting volcanos on a Jovian moon and a thunderstorm on Saturn. But Prof Ed Stone, who has been at Voyager's scientific helm since 1972, says there is one place above all that he longs to visit again.

The veteran space scientist is calling for a return mission to Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus, whose underground oceans are widely viewed as the most promising place in the solar system in which to hunt for extraterrestrial life.