Galaxy Science with ORCAS: Faint Star-Forming Clumps to AB$\leq$31 mag and r$_e$$\geq$ 0.01"

Understand

The NASA concept mission ORCAS (Orbiting Configurable Artificial Star) aims to provide near diffraction-limited angular resolution at visible and near-infrared wavelengths using laser signals from space-based cubesats as Adaptive Optics beacons for ground-based 8-30 meter telescopes, in particular the 10 meter Keck Telescopes.

• When built as designed, ORCAS+Keck would deliver images of ~0.01-0.02&#34; FWHM at 0.5-1.2 micron wavelength that reach AB<31 mag for point sources in a few hours over a 5x5&#34; FOV that includes IFU capabilities.
• We summarize the potential of high-resolution faint galaxy science with ORCAS.
• We show that the ability to detect optical-near-IR point sources with r_e>0.01&#34; FWHM to AB<31 mag will yield about 5.0x10^6 faint star-forming (SF) clumps per square degree, or ~0.4 per arcsec^2.