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K. A. Misselt, K. D. Gordon, G. C. Clayton (LSU)
Studying local starbursts promises to provide insight into the mechanisms of star formation and the relationship between star formation, dust, and galactic evolution. In order to study the stellar evolutionary history of starbursts, an accurate account of the effects of dust is necessary. We are in the process of extending our current radiative transfer model into the infrared. Presently, the model tracks UV and optical photons through an arbitrary mixture of gas, stars, and dust. By calculating the amount of energy absorbed by the dust, we can model the emitted spectrum of the dust under the assumption that the dust is optically thin to infrared radiation. The ability to fit the full UV through far-infrared spectral energy distribution of dusty astrophysical objects has applications to a wide variety of objects. Here, we present the preliminary results of the application of the model to a sample of starburst galaxies with observations from the UV through far-IR.