Pluto is about forty times the distance from the Sun as Earth. But the Solar System is over 50000 times that length across, meaning it could be hiding some huge secrets. That's now looking like a small but real possibility.

The Kuiper Belt, the vast asteroid belt of ice and rock that lies beyond Neptune, is home to three objects big enough to be considered dwarf planets: Haumea, Makemake, and our old friend Pluto. And now, we might have found three more.

Do you want your share of scientific immortality? You can devote your life to mastering your field, examining the mysteries of the universe, and then finally arriving at one great discovery...but according to Stigler's Law, you won't get the credit.

Beyond Neptune lies the Kuiper Belt, a massive asteroid belt twenty times the size of the one between Mars and Jupiter. In this frigid, unforgiving environment, organic molecules might still survive, suggesting life's building blocks are everywhere in the universe.

Any alien astronomers searching for life-supporting exoplanets could be in for a disappointment if they look at our solar system - the massive amount of dust in the outer solar system could make all the planets except Neptune effectively invisible.

In 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will reach Pluto and its frosty moon, Charon. But the journey of discovery will just be beginning, as New Horizons ventures out into the Kuiper Belt, made up of icy bodies just like Pluto.