arXiv · astro-ph/0401235
Detection of a red supergiant progenitor star of a type II-plateau supernova
Abstract
We present the discovery of a red supergiant star that exploded as supernova 2003gd in the nearby spiral galaxy M74. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Gemini Telescope imaged this galaxy 6 to 9 months before the supernova explosion and subsequent HST images confirm the positional coincidence of the supernova with a single,resolved star which is an 8 +4/-2 solar mass red supergiant. This confirms both stellar evolution models and supernova theories which predict that type II-Plateau supernovae have cool red supergiants as their immediate progenitor stars.
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S. J. Smartt, J. R. Maund, M. A. Hendry, C. A. Tout, G. F. Gilmore, S. Mattila, C. R. Benn. 2004-01-13. Detection of a red supergiant progenitor star of a type II-plateau supernova. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1092967
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