Josh Lake (USA) submitted a stunning image of NGC 1763, part of the N11 star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. ESA/Hubble had previously published an image of an area just adjacent to this (heic1011), based on observations by the same team. Josh took a different approach, producing a bold two-colour image which contrasts the light from glowing hydrogen and nitrogen. The image is not in natural colours — hydrogen and nitrogen produce almost indistinguishable shades of red light that our eyes would struggle to tell apart — but Josh’s processing separates them out into blue and red, dramatically highlighting the structure of the region. As well as narrowly topping the jury’s vote, Josh Lake also won the public vote.
Andre van der Hoeven (Netherlands) came a close second in the jury vote. His image of the spiral galaxy Messier 77 is highly attractive, and is also an impressive piece of image processing, combining a number of datasets from separate instruments into one amazing picture. Andre entered several other noteworthy images into the competition, including a huge image of Messier 106, combining data from Hubble and other telescopes. His image of NGC 6537, a star-forming region, greatly impressed the jury too.
Judy Schmidt (USA) also entered several highly accomplished images into the competition. Her picture of XZ Tauri, a newborn star spraying out gas into its surroundings and lighting up a nearby cloud of dust, was the jury’s favourite. This was a challenging dataset to process, as Hubble only captured two colours in this area. Nevertheless, the end result is an attractive image, and an unusual object that we would never have found without her help. Judy’s other images also impressed our panel, in particular her images of Herbig–Haro object HH 909A and elliptical galaxy PGC 6240.
Renaud Houdinet (France) submitted a hugely ambitious mosaic of Hubble images. Chamaeleon I is a large nebula near the south celestial pole, and it does not fit into a single Hubble image. Renaud painstakingly tiled the exposures together. Despite the small gaps between the Hubble images, the jury was impressed by the technical achievement of putting together this ambitious vista.
This image shows the top ten images entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition: Top row: NGC 1763 by Josh Lake, M 77 by Andre van der Hoeven, XZ Tauri by Judy Schmidt, Chamaeleon I by Renaud Houdinet, M 96 by Robert Gendler.Bottom row: SNR 0519-69 by Claude Cornen, PK 111-2.1 by Josh Barrington, NGC 1501 by kyokugaisha1, Abell 68 by Nick Rose, IC 10 by Nikolaus Sulzenauer.
This image shows the top ten images entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures basic competition: Top row: NGC 6300 by Brian Campbell, V* PV Cephei by Alexey Romashin, IRAS 14568-6304 by Luca Limatola, NGC 1579 by Kathlyn Smith, B 1608+656 by Adam Kill. Bottom row: NGC 4490 by Kathy van Pelt, NGC 6153 by Ralf Schoofs, NGC 6153 by Matej Novak, NGC 7814 by Gavrila Alexandru, NGC 7026 by Linda Morgan-O’Connor.
Robert Gendler (USA) is a well known figure in the amateur image processing world. His version of Hubble’s image of NGC 3190 is the default desktop image on new Apple computers. Robert submitted a number of excellent images into the competition. This image of Messier 96 was the jury’s favourite.
Claude Cornen produced this image of supernova remnant SNR 0519-69.
Josh Barrington produced this image of planetary nebula PK111-2.1.
A contestant known only as "kyokugaisha1" on Flickr produced this image of planetary nebula NGC 1501.
Nick Rose produced this image of lensing cluster Abell 68.
Nikolaus Sulzenauer produced this image of dwarf galaxy IC 10
There were 1619 entries in the basic competition. This allowed the public to search and find amazing Hubble pictures even if they didn’t have the skills to fully process these themselves. Brian Campbell located this image of NGC 6300.
Alexey Romashin located this image of V* PV Cephei, a variable star of Orion type.
Luca Limatola located this image of IRAS 14568-6304
Kathlyn Smith located this image of reflection nebula NGC 1579.
Adam Kill located this Hubble image of B 1608+656.
Kathy van Pelt located this Hubble image of galaxy NGC 4490.
Ralf Schoofs located this Hubble image of edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4217.
Matej Novak located this Hubble image of NGC 6153.
Gavrila Alexandru located this Hubble image of NGC 7814.
Linda Morgan-O’Connor NGC 7026
Budeanu Cosmin Mirel located this Hubble image of NGC 4100.
