A study of some current methods of analysing observations of star-forming regions

We present an evaluative study of some current methods utilized in the analysis of infrared (IR) observations of star-forming regions. A series of self-consistent radiative transfer models are constructed, with the outputs analysed using these methods to infer source properties such as dust tempertaure, mass, opacity function, and density distribution. Any discrepancies between the inferred and model quantities can be attributed to the analysis methods. The range of validity of most methods is smaller than expected, due to two effects: (1) limited applicability of the Rayleigh-Jeans limit except to very long wavelengths, and (2) significant errors in the isothermal approxi