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This month NASA plans to launch its latest and most sophisticated mission ever to the Red Planet: the Mars Science Laboratory. After a dramatic landing in Gale Crater using a skycrane for the final descent, the nuclear-powered rover will drive around one of the richest deposits of clays and sulfates on the planet--the remains of a water-rich era when rivers carved out valley networks. The size of a small car, the rover (named Curiosity) will spend a Martian year exploring the base of the central peak in the crater, thought to be the oldest section

Nitrogen-rich forest bedrock -- the geologic rock formation located under forest soil -- may aid trees in better sequestering carbon, according to a recent study that offers a new understanding on why some forests store greenhouse gases more efficiently than others. While geologic rock isn't a carbon sink itself, it plays an important role in helping the soil and trees above absorb CO 2 , say the study's authors, who published their findings last week in Nature . But a lack of research on nitrogen has left it largely ignored by climate scientists and policymakers scrambling to identify carbon sinks that mitigate carbon dioxide pollution from large emitters.