Related papers: Massive stars in their death-throes
As part of a larger completed Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Snapshot program, we observed the sites of six nearby core-collapse supernovae (SNe) at high spatial resolution: SN 2012A, SN 2013ej, SN 2016gkg, SN 2017eaw, SN 2018zd, and SN…
It is now firmly established that at a significant fraction of hydrogen-rich type II supernovae (SNe II) arise from red supergiant progenitors. However, a large diversity of SN properties exist, and it is presently unclear how this can be…
Massive stars with a core-halo structure are interesting objects for stellar physics and hydrodynamics. Using simulations for stellar evolution, radiation hydrodynamics, and radiative transfer, we study the explosion of stars with an…
We report the identification of a source coincident with SN 2009kr in HST pre-explosion images. The object appears to be a single point source with an intrinsic colour V-I = 1.1 and M_V = -7.6. If this is a single star it would be a yellow…
I discuss observational clues concerning episodic mass-loss properties of massive stars in the time before the final supernova explosion. In particular, I will focus on the mounting evidence that LBVs and related stars are candidates for…
We present observational constraints on the nature of the different core-collapse supernova types through an investigation of the association of their explosion sites with recent star formation, as traced by H-alpha +[NII] line emission. We…
A set of hydrodynamical models based on stellar evolutionary progenitors is used to study the nature of SN 2011dh. Our modeling suggests that a large progenitor star ---with R ~200 Rsun---, is needed to reproduce the early light curve of SN…
We study the evolution of supernova remnants in the circumstellar medium formed by mass loss from the progenitor star. The properties of this interaction are investigated, and the specific case of a 35 $\msun$ star is studied in detail. The…
Analysis of pre-explosion imaging has confirmed red supergiants (RSGs) as the progenitors to Type II-P supernovae (SNe). However, extracting the RSG's luminosity requires assumptions regarding the star's temperature or spectral type and the…
When a core collapse supernova occurs in a binary system, the surviving star as well as the compact remnant emerging from the SN, may reach a substantial space velocity. With binary population synthesis modelling at solar and one fifth of…
We explore properties of Type Ib and IIb SN progenitors that are produced by stable mass transfer in binary systems, using a new grid of stellar evolution models from an initial primary mass in the range of 10 - 18 $\mathrm{M_\odot}$ at…
Type IIn supernovae (SNe IIn) are hydrogen-rich explosions embedded in dense circumstellar medium (CSM), which gives rise to their characteristic narrow hydrogen emission lines. The nature of their progenitors and pre-explosion mass loss…
The absence of Type IIP core-collapse supernovae arising from progenitors above 17 solar masses suggests the existence of another evolutionary path by which massive stars end their lives. The direct collapse of a stellar core to a black…
We examine pre-supernova Chandra images to find X-ray luminosities of type Ia supernova progenitors. At present, we have one possible direct detection and upper limits for the X-ray luminosities of a number of other supernova progenitors.…
A popular solution to the Type Ia supernova (SNIa) progenitor problem is that the immediate progenitors are symbiotic star systems. This solution requires that the companion star of the exploding white dwarf must be a red giant star with a…
The symbiotic channel of Type Ia supernovae progenitors is crucial for explaining the observed circumstellar material in some Type Ia supernovae. While extensive numerical and observational efforts have been dedicated to exploring the…
We present constraints on core-collapse supernova progenitors through observations of their environments within host galaxies. This is achieved through 2 routes. Firstly, we investigate the spatial correlation of supernovae with host galaxy…
Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are the explosions of massive stars following the collapse of the stars' iron cores. Poznanski (2013) has recently suggested an observational correlation between the ejecta velocities and the inferred masses…
The last ten years have opened up a new parameter space in time-domain astronomy with the discovery of transients defying our understanding of how stars explode. These extremes of the transient paradigm represent the brightest - called…
Modern cosmological simulations predict that the first generation of stars formed with a mass scale around 100 solar masses about 300-400 million years after the Big Bang. When the first stars reached the end of their lives, many of them…