About CoolCosmos

CoolCosmos is an unconventional initiative – an approach we call "in-your-face outreach" – to pique people's curiosity about the cosmos they live in, as we celebrate the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. Our goal is to reach that vast majority of the population for whom the science of astronomy just does not enter daily life, and remind them about our cosmic connections.

A pivotal piece of CoolCosmos is a four-week campaign of 3000 ads on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), which provides over 35 million rides each month on its subway cars, street cars and buses. The same five designs also feature in 50,000 bookmarks that will be distributed at various outreach events and through libraries and schools. Both the transit ads and the bookmarks point to the CoolCosmos.net web site, which expands on the science behind them through podcasts and graphic-rich articles.