Detection of a red supergiant progenitor star of a type II-plateau supernova.
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 that is a red supergiant of 8(+4)(-2) solar masses. This confirms both stellar evolution models and supernova theories predicting that cool red supergiants are the immediate progenitor stars of type II-plateau supernovae.
Smartt
Stephen J
SJ
Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK. sjs@ast.cam.ac.uk
Maund
Justyn R
JR
Hendry
Margaret A
MA
Tout
Christopher A
CA
Gilmore
Gerard F
GF
Mattila
Seppo
S
Benn
Chris R
CR