The Korean Space Telescope (KST): A Dedicated Space Observatory for the Dark Universe
Abstract
The Korean Space Telescope (KST) is a next-generation 1.4-meter wide-field space observatory, a dedicated probe of the dark sector. Its single instrument provides diffraction-limited visible imaging (~0.15 arcsec in the optical) together with simultaneous near-infrared (R ~ 100) slitless spectrophotometry, so that every detected source is observed in the NIR by the survey itself, with spectral information delivered at a resolution set by its brightness (full R ~ 100 typing at the bright end, synthetic medium-band or broadband photometry below it) and with no separate follow-up, a capability decisive for time-domain science. With it, KST addresses the three outstanding questions of dark physics in concert: the dynamics of dark energy, the nature of dark matter, and gravitational-wave dark sirens as independent cosmological rulers. KST combines measurements of expansion and structure growth to test dark-energy models. A two-tiered "Wedding Cake" strategy (2,000 deg^2 Wide plus 10 deg^2 cluster-targeted Deep Survey) combines weak lensing, baryon acoustic oscillations, and a near-infrared-standardized Type Ia supernova Hubble diagram to constrain dark energy at its pivot redshift (sigma(w_p) ~ 0.03); maps dark matter from cluster cores to galactic substructure to test cold dark matter against warm and self-interacting alternatives; and builds a deep near-infrared host catalog for a distance-ladder-independent H_0 from dark sirens. The same data yield a Legacy Science portfolio (galaxy evolution, active galactic nuclei, exoplanets, and the Milky Way) at no additional observing cost. As Korea's first dedicated astrophysics space mission, KST occupies a niche complementary to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, Euclid, and Roman.
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BibTeX
@misc{jee2026korean,
title = {{The Korean Space Telescope (KST): A Dedicated Space Observatory for the Dark Universe}},
author = {M. James Jee and Ho Seong Hwang and Dongwook Lim and Minjin Kim and Myungshin Im and Sungwook E. Hong and Ho-Gyu Lee and Soung-Chul Yang and David Parkinson and Arman Shafieloo and Jun-Qian Jiang and Haeng Pal Heo and Dongok Ryu and Hagyong Kihm and Hyung Yun Noh and Wooyong Kang and Youngsun Kim},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.39094},
eprint = {2610.39094},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39094},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The Korean Space Telescope (KST): A Dedicated Space Observatory for the Dark Universe
AU - M. James Jee
AU - Ho Seong Hwang
AU - Dongwook Lim
AU - Minjin Kim
AU - Myungshin Im
AU - Sungwook E. Hong
AU - Ho-Gyu Lee
AU - Soung-Chul Yang
AU - David Parkinson
AU - Arman Shafieloo
AU - Jun-Qian Jiang
AU - Haeng Pal Heo
AU - Dongok Ryu
AU - Hagyong Kihm
AU - Hyung Yun Noh
AU - Wooyong Kang
AU - Youngsun Kim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.39094
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39094
AB - The Korean Space Telescope (KST) is a next-generation 1.4-meter wide-field space observatory, a dedicated probe of the dark sector. Its single instrument provides diffraction-limited visible imaging (~0.15 arcsec in the optical) together with simultaneous near-infrared (R ~ 100) slitless spectrophotometry, so that every detected source is observed in the NIR by the survey itself, with spectral information delivered at a resolution set by its brightness (full R ~ 100 typing at the bright end, synthetic medium-band or broadband photometry below it) and with no separate follow-up, a capability decisive for time-domain science. With it, KST addresses the three outstanding questions of dark physics in concert: the dynamics of dark energy, the nature of dark matter, and gravitational-wave dark sirens as independent cosmological rulers. KST combines measurements of expansion and structure growth to test dark-energy models. A two-tiered "Wedding Cake" strategy (2,000 deg^2 Wide plus 10 deg^2 cluster-targeted Deep Survey) combines weak lensing, baryon acoustic oscillations, and a near-infrared-standardized Type Ia supernova Hubble diagram to constrain dark energy at its pivot redshift (sigma(w_p) ~ 0.03); maps dark matter from cluster cores to galactic substructure to test cold dark matter against warm and self-interacting alternatives; and builds a deep near-infrared host catalog for a distance-ladder-independent H_0 from dark sirens. The same data yield a Legacy Science portfolio (galaxy evolution, active galactic nuclei, exoplanets, and the Milky Way) at no additional observing cost. As Korea's first dedicated astrophysics space mission, KST occupies a niche complementary to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, Euclid, and Roman.
ER -