Haematite can be either red or grey, depending on subtle details of its oxidation state and crystalline form. As with many iron oxides, it can vary quite a bit from the nominal composition. It's colour varies with composition and crystal form, & also varies with thickness, ranging from pearly irridescent silver sheens to solid blood red, dense black-red, or shimmery bluish black.

That's why you'll see discussion of the Haematite site on Mars as being *grey* (or gray) haematite and being coarsely cystalline. The IR spectra of these variants are distictive, and the whole reason we've come to Meridiani - because coarsely crystalline grey haematite is supposed to form in gloriously aqueous environments.

Colour control is very difficult in these images, and there are two components - a pinkish red one and a bluer grey one, but *both* could be "red" in the lighting of Mars. The pictures we're posting a close to the truth, but if I change colour balance by a mere 12.5%, I get completely different results.

I bought a haematite necklace for my wife a while back - it's silver grey with a faint blue tint. I think one of the press releases talked about one of the Athena team scientists having a similar necklace. If you see one, buy it - they're made of Australian iron ore and it will help our balance of payments! :-)

(Actually, they're made in China and help them more, since we only get paid by the tonne for ore, and they sort out the good bits and cut & polish them)

It was hoped that we would find beads and crystals of solid chunky haematite lying around at this site, covering ~ 20% of the surface.

The truth may be a little different to the expectation, but let's wait a few more days before we see really damning data !

Who know, it might even confirm the watery stories? :-)