Over two decades in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has made a huge number of observations. Every week, we publish new images on the ESA/Hubble website.

But hidden in Hubble’s huge data archives are still some truly breathtaking images that have never been seen in public. We call them Hubble’s Hidden Treasures — and we’re looking for your help to bring them to light.

We’re inviting the public into Hubble’s vast science archive to dig out the best unseen Hubble images. Find a great dataset in the Hubble Legacy Archive (http://hla.stsci.edu/), adjust the contrast and colors using the simple online tools and submit to our Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Contest Flickr group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/hubblehiddentreasures), and you could win an iPod Touch in our Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Competition.

For an extra challenge, why not try using the same software that the professionals use to turn the Hubble data into breath-taking images? Download the data from the Hubble Legacy Archive (http://hla.stsci.edu/), process using powerful open-source software such as the ESO/ESA/NASA FITS Liberator (http://www.spacetelescope.org/projects/fits_liberator/) and make a beautiful image for our Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Image Processing Contest Flickr group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/hubblehiddentreasures_advanced). And you’ll be in with a chance to win an iPad.

Both parts of the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures competition close on 31 May 2012.

The best datasets that you identify will also be featured as future pictures of the week and photo releases on spacetelescope.org.

More information, watch Hubblecast 53, and visit the Hidden Treasures webpage: http://www.spacetelescope.org/hiddentreasures

Competition news will be posted on our Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/HubbleESA) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/hubble_space) accounts throughout the contest.

Competition pages: http://www.spacetelescope.org/hiddentreasures

Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Contest Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/hubblehiddentreasures

Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Image Processing Contest Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/hubblehiddentreasures_advanced

Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA): http://hla.stsci.edu/

The ESO/ESA/NASA FITS Liberator: http://www.spacetelescope.org/projects/fits_liberator/

Hubblecast 53: http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/hubblecast53a/

Contact:

Oli Usher
Hubble/ESA, Garching, Germany
+49-89-3200-6855
hidden_treasures@spacetelescope.org