Pointed observations with ISO have been made, or are planned, towards 58 supernova remnants (SNRs) in the galaxy and Magellanic clouds. The main emphasis is on detailed studies of gas, dust and synchrotron emission from selected regions within 24 well studied galactic remants. First results are available for Cas A (Lagage et al. 1996, 1997; Tuffs et al. 1997; Unger et al. 1997), the Cygnus Loop (deCourchelle et al 1997; Fischera et al. 1997), RCW103 (Oliva et al. 1997; Wright et al. 1997), and W44 and 3C391 (Reach and Rho 1996). These are providing insights into issues such as the yield and composition of condensates in supernova ejecta, the processing of grains by adiabatic and radiative shocks, and the measurement of cold gas, inaccessible to optical observations, both from cool regions in radiative shocks and from unshocked ejecta. In this progress report these points are illustrated with reference to Cas A, the prototype of an ejecta-dominated remnant of a massive core-collapse supernova, and the Cygnus Loop and RCW103 as prime examples of radiative shocks delineating the interaction of fast blast waves with diffuse atomic and dense molecular clouds, respectively.

The Solar System is characterized by a large variety of objects, with sizes ranging from more than a hundred thousand km down to less than a /mi. All solar-system IR spectra are the sum of two components: at short wavelengths, the reflected sunlight provides information upon the albedo and the chemical composition of the body; at longer wavelengths (typically above 3 to 5 /um), the thermal emission provides information on the temperature of the surface or the atmosphere, and on the vertical distribution of atmospheric constituents.

Comets, the most pristine members of our solar system, are faint at large heliocentric distances (rh > 3 au) and therefore difficult to observe. Data reduction of these faint objects (periodic comets) is time consuming and hence most often just preliminary results can be discussed. Only the orbits of short periodic comets can be predicted and most of those that have been accessible for ISO have been covered within the guaranteed time programme. About 10 proposals were accepted by the selection for open time proposals. A target of opportunity team was formed. The outstanding comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 01), one of the brightest and therefore most active comets of this century, was suggested and accepted as TOO. The important results from the ISO cometary programme are derived from its observations. In addition to the observations of "classic" comets the newly detected (Jewitt and Luu, 1993) transneptunian objects, probably objects from the Kuiper belt, are observed in an attempt to determine their physical properties.

This has been an exciting meeting in which we saw all the different instruments on ISO revealing strikingly novel results that challenged conventional perceptions with unexpected findings or confirmed long-held astrophysical views which previously had to be taken on faith.