The infrared imaging spectrograph (IRIS) for TMT: sensitivities and simulations

Understand

We present sensitivity estimates for point and resolved astronomical sources for the current design of the InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) on the future Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

• IRIS, with TMT's adaptive optics system, will achieve unprecedented point source sensitivities in the near-infrared (0.84 - 2.45 {\mu}m) when compared to systems on current 8-10m ground based telescopes.
• The IRIS imager, in 5 hours of total integration, will be able to perform a few percent photometry on 26 - 29 magnitude (AB) point sources in the near-infrared broadband filters (Z, Y, J, H, K).
• The integral field spectrograph, with a range of scales and filters, will achieve good signal-to-noise on 22 - 26 magnitude (AB) point sources with a spectral resolution of R=4,000 in 5 hours of total integration time.