Pluto flyby: Watch the New Horizons mission live

Watch live: the New Horizons Pluto flyby.

The New Horizons spacecraft is about to fly by Pluto — passing within 7,750 miles of the dwarf planet at 7:49 am ET Tuesday.

We won't be able to see live photos of the flyby, because the craft will be focusing on collecting data, rather than transmitting it, and it takes 4.5 hours for any data it sends back to reach Earth. But NASA TV will be broadcasting live coverage of the event, with commentary and explanation from scientists, and you can watch it right here.

(JHU/APL)

We'll see the first photos of the flyby — showing us Pluto up close for the first time ever — Wednesday afternoon. Over the coming months, hundreds of other photos and scientific data will trickle in, allowing scientists to better understand Pluto and how it formed billions of years ago.

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Jul 14, 2015 at 4:00am PDT

New Horizons' last photo of Pluto before the flyby, taken at 4 pm ET on July 13.

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