“By comparing each of the Martian soils with all fifteen hundred Scottish soils in our dataset, we consistently find a group of Scottish soil samples that are strikingly similar to those on Mars. There are two sites in Scotland that have particularly similar soil minerals to those found of Mars, located on the basaltic soils of Skye and Mull"

NASA’s InSight lander has been headline news in recent weeks, as it continues to send back clear images of the rocky and unforgiving surface of Mars. However, the previous exploration robot sent to roam the red planet, the Curiosity rover, has been beaming back invaluable data for years, giving scientists a glimpse into the Martian landscape. Unlikely as it may seem, analysis by scientists at the James Hutton Institute has found that some soils on Mars are very similar to those found in Scotland.

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This article was originally posted by The James Hutton Institute