| The purpose of this thesis is to determine if the value of the total-to-selective extinction ratio, RV, has spatial and temporal variations as dust is modified by UV photons. Historically this value has been assumed to be 3.1 after averaging the values along different sightlines in the Milky Way Galaxy. This work will also demonstrate, that for areas of recent star formation with heavy extinction a proper study can not be done when assuming the nominal value, but a local value of RV must first be determined. For this purpose I will analyze the reddening parameters RV and A V toward the massive cluster Westerlund 2 and several mid-IR bubbles located in the G38.91-0.42 complex. Three reddening laws that made different assumptions about RV are applied to the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the observed stars. These SEDs are compared to the available optical and IR photometry searching for the RV and AV that minimizes the chi 2 of the fit. |
