See Pluto Live Via Telescope Today in Slooh Webcast

Solar System Illustration
The dwarf planet Pluto lies 3 billion miles away from Earth, normally the farthest of the classical planets, as shown in this NASA computer illustration. Slooh is hosting a webcast Wednesday to discuss the new, closest-ever images and view Pluto live from Earth. (Image credit: NASA)

The online Slooh Community Observatory will discuss the latest close-up images of Pluto taken by the New Horizons probe, along with live observations of the dwarf planet by ground-based telescopes, in a live webcast today (July 15), and you can watch it live online.

The free webcast will air at 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT) on the the Slooh website (http://www.slooh.com), and feature analysis of the newest Pluto images from New Horizons. It will also include live views of Pluto taken through Slooh's remotely operated observatory in the Canary Islands, Spain.

The Pluto presentation - which can also be seen on Space.com, courtesy of Slooh - will include discussion of the new images by Slooh astronomers and special guests from the New Horizons science team. Before the Slooh webcast, at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), NASA is expected to unveil the latest Pluto images from New Horizons. You can watch that Pluto flyby update on Space.com as well, courtesy of NASA TV.

Those images, acquired during New Horizons' flyby of Pluto on Tuesday (July 14), are the closest and most detailed ever taken of the distant world. 

"Over the past few months Pluto has been looming ever closer in the images from NASA's New Horizons probe," Slooh astronomer Will Gater said in a statement. "We've watched as tantalizing new features emerge into view on this enigmatic world, but now's the moment we've all been waiting for: our first fly-by of the dwarf planet and a chance to explore and study an object that's fascinated planetary scientists ever since its discovery."

The New Horizons spacecraft launched in January 2006 and whipped past Jupiter in 2007 on its way to Pluto. On Tuesday, the probe made its closest approach to the dwarf planet, aiming its instruments at the icy body for a thorough investigation. Data from the flyby will be sent to Earth over the course of the next 16 months.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Sarah Lewin
Associate Editor

Sarah Lewin started writing for Space.com in June of 2015 as a Staff Writer and became Associate Editor in 2019 . Her work has been featured by Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, Quanta Magazine, Wired, The Scientist, Science Friday and WGBH's Inside NOVA. Sarah has an MA from NYU's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program and an AB in mathematics from Brown University. When not writing, reading or thinking about space, Sarah enjoys musical theatre and mathematical papercraft. She is currently Assistant News Editor at Scientific American. You can follow her on Twitter @SarahExplains.