5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Two major space discoveries highlight the list this week:

• Far-Flung Dwarf Planet May Reveal Cosmic Secrets: An icy, pink dwarf planet discovered beyond Pluto in the nether regions of our solar system could help shed light on how our cosmos came to be. It also hints that a so-far unseen planet way bigger than Earth lurks out there and is affecting the orbits of these smaller bodies.
• Solar System First: Asteroid With Rings: Only five bodies in the solar system are known to have rings: the gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus—and now Chariklo, a remote asteroid just 154 miles across. It's the first time rings have been spotted around anything but a giant planet.
• Second Half of Turtle Fossil Found 165 Years Later: An amateur paleontologist hunting for shark teeth in a New Jersey stream bed found something a lot more interesting: one half of an arm bone from an ancient, massive sea turtle. The astonishing part is that the other half of the bone has been sitting in a museum for 165 years.
• Autism Starts in the Womb: Autism appears to start with changes in the brain months before birth, according to new research. Scientists studying the brains of deceased autistic children found abnormal patches in the cortex that suggest something went wrong either during or before development in the second trimester of pregnancy. If confirmed, it could lead to better, earlier treatment.
• Trouble Conceiving? Stress Could Be to Blame: If you're trying to get pregnant, you may want to go out and get a nice, relaxing massage first: A new study finds that stressed women took longer to conceive. The finding is especially true for couples having trouble over a long stretch of time.

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