April 3, 2018

On 24-28th March 2018 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) held its huge Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP2018) conference in Fukuoka, Japan. COSMOS was represented at the meeting by team member Jacinta Delhaize from the University of Zagreb, who gave a talk on the various public outreach and communications initiatives of COSMOS.

She spoke about the various successes and challenges of engaging the public in such a large multi-national, multi-wavelength astronomical consortium. This is important because we think our data and science is great and we want to share it with everyone! The main challenge is that our astronomers, therefore the members of the public who we are trying to reach, are dispersed throughout the world over many different time zones and languages.

Therefore we mainly communicate our science using online platforms. We have this website and a presence on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube. We use these platforms to share our video blogs, news, press releases and more.

Stepping away from the virtual realm, we have our wonderful Artist-in-Residence Karel Nel, who creates renowned artworks inspired by COSMOS research. We also sometimes run public Astronomy on Tap events at the pub alongside our annual team meetings.

If you have any feedback or suggestions about other initiatives or website content you'd like to see, please let us know!

 

Image: Jacinta presents the COSMOS public outreach and communication initiatives at the IAU'S CAP2018 conference in Fukuoka, Japan.