Hubble watches massive storm on Neptune reverse course Photos: 30 years of Hubble telescope images The Orion Nebula is 1,500 light-years from Earth and is located in Orion's Belt in the constellation Orion. It's one of the brightest nebulae -- and on a clear, dark night it's visible to the naked eye. The nebula is Earth's nearest star-forming region. Hide Caption The Hubble Space Telescope was launched from the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Hide Caption Photos: 30 years of Hubble telescope images Hubble has given us many images of our neighbor Mars. This image was taken in 2003 when Mars made its closest approach in nearly 60,000 years. On August 27, 2003, the two worlds were only 34.6 million miles apart from center to center. By contrast, Mars can be about 249 million miles away from Earth.