It was all an accident too! NASA’s Curiosity rover was on Mars’ Vera Rubin ridge collecting samples when it suffered from a slight malfunction. The robot dropped one of the samples into a cup with a chemical mixture instead of one of the containers in the sample carousel. This accident caused molecules to rise from the combination. Upon analysis, scientists discovered organic molecules on Mars that no space agency had previously detected. Check Inverse’s full piece on the discovery here.
Image credit: NASA