Geologists in Scotland say two rural, mountainous islands have soil matching that of Mars.

Using open-source data from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, the geologists were able to compare soil samples from the red planet to a database of more than 1,500 Scottish soil samples. They found the Martian soil matches closely to two Scottish islands: Skye and Mull.

Skye and Mull are fairly mountainous islands on the west coast of Scotland. Skye is a popular tourist destination and has been featured in several films, including "Prometheus," "The BFG" and "Transformers: The Last Knight."

Benjamin Butler, a digital mineralogist with the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, said the results make sense due to the similarities between the islands and Mars.

“The reason they stand out is because the soils on Skye and Mull form on similar rock to the rocks found on Mars, so in that sense, we would expect to find these similar soils, in these ancient volcanic environments,” he said.

All three soil samples are rich in basaltic rock minerals, which are found commonly on both Earth and Mars, but it’s their interaction with water over time that makes these three areas unique, Butler says.

Butler hopes the discovery will allow NASA scientists to more easily examine Martian soil and find out whether it was capable of supporting microbial life, because now further soil testing can be done on Earth.

“It just opens up a lot of doors to help the understanding of the ancient environments on Mars,” he said.

The Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August 2012 with the goal of assessing the geology of the planet and determining if it was ever capable of supporting microbial life.

Butler thanked NASA for allowing Curiosity’s soil data to be publicly accessible.

“Things should be available freely for others to explore, because without the open data, this combination wouldn’t have been possible,” he said. “It’s a timely example of how unforeseen findings can arise when you share data openly.”