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Close window Published online: 4 April 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070402-5 Mars hots upDust storms and dark rocks are making the red planet hotter.Katharine Sanderson Hot stuff: darker areas heat up in the sunshine. NASA Mars is getting hotter. Measurements of the brightness of the planet's surface show that the thermometer has ratcheted up some 0.65 °C over a few decades. Lori Fenton at the Carl Sagan Center, Mountain View, California, and colleagues looked at maps of Mars's 'albedo', a measure of how much light reflects off a surface. By comparing a map from 1976-78 with one from 1999-2000, they found...