Asteroids in the infrared - Serendipitous observations with ISO

The infrared space observatory (ISO) observed many asteroids in great detai l., including near-Earth asteroids (NEA). Additionally, a large number of o bserving programmes contain serendipitous observations of known and unknown solar system objects (SSO). The ISO specific constraints, like sensitivity , visibility and orbit parallax and their consequences for SSO extraction a re presented. Model calculations demonstrate the efficiency and effectivene ss of space-based infrared programmes for investigations of SSOs. Four larg e ISO programmes have been analyzed and first results from the SSO search a re discussed. The possibilities and limits of ISO with respect to near-Eart h objects (NEO) are briefly mentioned. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.