Related papers: A high angular-resolution search for the progenito…

We report our attempts to locate the progenitor of the type Ic SN 2004gt in NGC 4038. We use high resolution HST ACS images of SN 2004gt and have compared them with deep pre-explosion HST WFPC2 F336W, F439W, F555W and F814W images. We…

The explosive fate of massive stripped Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars is a key open question in stellar physics. An appealing option is that hydrogen-deficient W-R stars are the progenitors of some H-poor supernova (SN) explosions of Types IIb, Ib,…

The progenitors of many Type II supernovae have been observationally identified but the search for Type Ibc supernova (SN Ibc) progenitors has thus far been unsuccessful, despite the expectation that they are luminous Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars.…

(Abridged) We present a search for the progenitor star of the Type Ic Supernova 2002ap in deep, high quality pre-explosion observations taken with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). Aligning high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope…

The progenitors of hydrogen-poor core-collapse supernovae (SNe) of types Ib, Ic and IIb are believed to have shed their outer hydrogen envelopes either by extremely strong stellar winds, characteristic of classical Wolf-Rayet stars, or by…

The progenitors of many type II core-collapse supernovae have now been identified directly on pre-discovery imaging. Here we present an extensive search for the progenitors of type Ibc supernovae in all available pre-discovery imaging since…

Core-collapse supernova (SN) explosions mark the end of the tumultuous life of massive stars. Determining the nature of their progenitors is a crucial step towards understanding the properties of SNe. Until recently, no progenitor has been…

We report the results of our search for the progenitor candidate of SN 2013dk, a Type Ic supernova (SN) that exploded in the Antennae Galaxy system. We compare pre-explosion Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archival images with SN images…

Identifying the massive progenitor stars that give rise to core-collapse supernovae (SNe) is one of the main pursuits of supernova and stellar evolution studies. Using ground-based images of recent, nearby SNe obtained primarily with KAIT,…

We report the first detection of a credible progenitor system for a Type Ic supernova (SN Ic), SN 2017ein. We present spectra and photometry of the SN, finding it to be similar to carbon-rich, low-luminosity SNe Ic. Using a post-explosion…

The death of massive stars produces a variety of supernovae, which are linked to the structure of the exploding stars. The detection of several precursor stars of Type II supernovae have been reported, however we do not yet have direct…

To date, SN 2017ein is the only Type Ic supernova with a directly identified progenitor candidate. This candidate points to a very massive ($>$45 $M_\odot$) Wolf-Rayet progenitor, but its disappearance after the explosion of SN 2017ein…

I summarize what we have learned about the nature of stars that ultimately explode as core-collapse supernovae from the examination of images taken prior to the explosion. By registering pre-supernova and post-supernova images, usually…

A source coincident with the position of the type IIb supernova (SN) 2008ax is identified in pre-explosion Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations in three optical filters. We identify and constrain two…

We present a theoretical model for Type Ib supernova (SN) 2006jc. We calculate the evolution of the progenitor star, hydrodynamics and nucleosynthesis of the SN explosion, and the SN bolometric light curve (LC). The synthetic bolometric LC…

We present pre-explosion and post-explosion Hubble Space Telescope images of the Type Iax supernova (SN Iax) 2014dt in M61. After astrometrically aligning these images, we do not detect any stellar sources at the position of the SN in the…

This letter presents wide-field optical and and NIR UBVRI,Halpha,K' images of the galaxy M74 which were taken between 0.6-8.3 years before the discovery of the Type Ic SN2002ap. We have located the position of the SN on these images with an…

Knowledge of the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae is a fundamental component in understanding the explosions. The recent progress in finding such stars is reviewed. The minimum initial mass that can produce a supernova has converged…

Hubble Space Telescope observations of the site of the supernova (SN) 2008ax obtained in 2011 and 2013 reveal that the possible progenitor object detected in pre-explosion images was in fact multiple. Four point sources are resolved in the…

Cao et al. (2013) reported a possible progenitor detection for the type Ib supernovae iPTF13bvn for the first time. We find that the progenitor is in fact brighter than the magnitudes previously reported by approximately 0.7 to 0.2 mag with…