This book brings together the lectures given at the Les Houches summer school "Infrared space astronomy, today and tomorrow". It gives a wide overview of infrared astronomy, a wavelength domain crucial for studies of the solar system, stars at the beginning and end of their lives, interstellar matter and galaxies at all distances. Recent developments in observational techniques have been tremendous. The first contributions give an introduction to the basic physical processes and methods of detection and data processing. They are followed by a series of lectures dealing with the wide variety of astronomical objects that can be seen in the infrared.

Inhalt

Some Quantitative Aspects of Galactic and Extragalactic Infrared Astronomy.- Overview of the ISO Mission.- Data Analysis with ISOCAM.- ISO Observations of Solar-System Objects.- Stars and Galactic Structure.- Star Formation.- Dust in the Interstellar Medium.- Normal Galaxies in the Infrared.- Active Galaxies.- Cosmology with ISO.