VLT detection of a red supergiant progenitor of the type IIP supernova 2008bk

Abstract

We report the identification of a source coincident with the position of the nearby type II-P supernova (SN) 2008bk in high quality optical and near-infrared pre-explosion images from the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). The SN position in the optical and near-infrared pre-explosion images is identified to within about +-70 and +-40 mas, respectively, using post-explosion Ks-band images obtained with the NAOS CONICA adaptive optics system on the VLT. The pre-explosion source detected in four different bands is precisely coincident with SN 2008bk and is consistent with being dominated by a single point source. We determine the nature of the point source using the STARS stellar evolutionary models and find that its colours and luminosity are consistent with the source being a red supergiant progenitor of SN 2008bk with an initial mass of 8.5 +- 1.0 Msun.

arXiv comment4 pages, 2 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters

References in corpus (23)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• The death of massive stars - I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of type II-P supernovae
• Approximate input physics for stellar modelling
• Oxygen and nitrogen abundances in nearby galaxies. Correlations between oxygen abundance and macroscopic properties
• Distances to Nearby Galaxies in Sculptor
• Discovery of the Dust-Enshrouded Progenitor of SN 2008S with Spitzer
• The Effective Temperatures and Physical Properties of Magellanic Cloud Red Supergiants: The Effects of Metallicity
• Detection of a red supergiant progenitor star of a type II-plateau supernova
• JHK Observations of Faint Standard Stars in the Mauna Kea Near-Infrared Photometric System
• The Progenitor of SN 2005cs in the Whirlpool Galaxy
• Identification of the Red Supergiant Progenitor of Supernova 2005cs: Do the Progenitors of Type II-P Supernovae Have Low Mass?
• On The Progenitor of the Type II-Plateau Supernova 2003gd in Messier 74
• Preliminary Spectral Analysis of the Type II Supernova 1999em
• Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the progenitor sites of six nearby core-collapse supernovae
• UBVRI Night sky brightness during sunspot maximum at ESO-Paranal
• Optical and infrared observations of the Type IIP SN2002hh from day 3 to 397
• On the Progenitors of Two Type II-P Supernovae in the Virgo Cluster
• SN 2004A: Another Type II-P Supernova with a Red Supergiant Progenitor
• A more detailed look at the Opacities for Enriched Carbon and Oxygen Mixtures
• Ruling out a massive-assymptoic giant-branch star as the progenitor of supernova 2005cs
• Mass limits for the progenitor star of supernova 2001du and other type II-P supernovae
• A high angular-resolution search for the progenitor of the type Ic Supernova 2004gt
• A Spitzer Space Telescope study of SN 2002hh: an infrared echo from a Type IIP supernova

Cited by in corpus (64)

• Progenitors of core-collapse supernovae
• The death of massive stars - I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of type II-P supernovae
• Observational constraints on the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae : the case for missing high mass stars
• The Yellow Supergiant Progenitor of the Type II Supernova 2011dh in M51
• Core-collapse explosions of Wolf-Rayet stars and the connection to type IIb/Ib/Ic supernovae
• Production of dust by massive stars at high redshift
• Underluminous Type II Plateau Supernovae: II. Pointing towards moderate mass precursors
• Optical and near infrared coverage of SN 2004et: physical parameters and comparison with other type IIP supernovae
• The temperatures of Red Supergiants
• Circumstellar dust as a solution to the red supergiant supernova progenitor problem
• A comparison between star formation rate diagnostics and rate of core collapse supernovae within 11 Mpc
• SN 2009md: Another faint supernova from a low mass progenitor
• Supernova 2008bk and Its Red Supergiant Progenitor
• Determining the main-sequence mass of Type II supernova progenitors
• EC-SNe from super-AGB progenitors: theoretical models vs. observations
• A First Targeted Search for Gravitational-Wave Bursts from Core-Collapse Supernovae in Data of First-Generation Laser Interferometer Detectors
• Red and dead: The progenitor of SN 2012aw in M95
• Type II-P Supernovae from the SDSS-II Supernova Survey and the Standardized Candle Method
• The diverse lives of progenitors of hydrogen-rich core-collapse supernovae: the role of binary interaction
• SN 2009kn - the twin of the Type IIn supernova 1994W
• Constraining the physical properties of Type II-P supernovae using nebular phase spectra
• Integral field spectroscopy of supernova explosion sites: constraining mass and metallicity of the progenitors - I. Type Ib and Ic supernovae
• A Late-Time View of the Progenitors of Five Type IIP Supernovae
• Predicting the Presence of Companions for Stripped-Envelope Supernovae: The Case of the Broad-Lined Type Ic SN 2002ap
• A Global Model of The Light Curves and Expansion Velocities of Type II-Plateau Supernovae
• Gone without a bang: An archival HST survey for disappearing massive stars
• Integral field spectroscopy of supernova explosion sites: constraining mass and metallicity of the progenitors -- II. Type II-P and II-L supernovae
• Emission line models for the lowest-mass core collapse supernovae. I: Case study of a 9 $M_{\odot }$ one-dimensional neutrino-driven explosion
• A new precise mass for the progenitor of the Type IIP SN 2008bk
• Non-relativistic radiation mediated shock breakouts: III. Spectral properties of SN shock breakout
• On the nature of the progenitors of three type II-P supernovae: 2004et, 2006my and 2006ov
• The resolved stellar populations around 12 Type IIP supernovae
• Radiation-hydrodynamical modelling of underluminous type II plateau Supernovae
• Constraints for the Progenitor Masses of 17 Historic Core-Collapse Supernovae
• The Young, Massive, Star Cluster Sandage-96 After the Explosion of SN 2004dj in NGC 2403
• A study of the low-luminosity Type II-Plateau supernova 2008bk
• The Impact of Neutrino Magnetic Moments on the Evolution of Massive Stars
• Progenitors of low-luminosity Type II-Plateau supernovae
• Cas A and the Crab Were Not Stellar Binaries At Death
• Stellar Binary Companions to Supernova Progenitors
• Type II-P supernovae as standardised candles: improvements using near infrared data
• A low-energy explosion yields the underluminous Type IIP SN 2020cxd
• Progenitor candidate for the type II-P supernova SN 2018aoq in NGC 4151
• Mass discrepancy analysis for a select sample of Type II-Plateau supernovae
• Low-luminosity type IIP supernovae: SN 2005cs and SN 2020cxd as very low-energy iron core-collapse explosions
• The double-peaked type Ic Supernova 2019cad: another SN 2005bf-like object
• The disappearances of six supernova progenitors
• Connecting the Light Curves of Type IIP Supernovae to the Properties of their Progenitors
• An Echo of Supernova 2008bk
• Discovery and Rapid Follow-up Observations of the Unusual Type II SN 2018ivc in NGC 1068
• Spatial distributions of core-collapse supernovae in infrared-bright galaxies
• Core-collapse supernova progenitor constraints using the spatial distributions of massive stars in local galaxies
• Low luminosity Type II supernovae III. SN 2018hwm, a faint event with an unusually long plateau
• Progenitor properties of type II supernovae: fitting to hydrodynamical models using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods
• Supernovae and radio transients in M 82
• The Gravitational Wave Signature of Core-Collapse Supernovae
• SN 2018is: a low-luminosity Type IIP supernova with narrow hydrogen emission lines at early phases
• A low-luminosity core-collapse supernova very similar to SN 2005cs
• Revisiting the progenitor of the low-luminosity type II-plateau supernova, SN 2008bk
• Dust Formation and the Binary Companions of Supernovae
• The Extremely Metal-Poor SN 2023ufx: A Local Analog to High-Redshift Type II Supernovae
• On the Progenitors of Core-Collapse Supernovae
• New X-ray Supernova Remnants in NGC 7793
• Narrow absorption lines from intervening material in supernovae: III. Supernovae and their environments