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Science 23 January 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5657, pp. 499 - 503
DOI: 10.1126/science.1092967
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Reports

Detection of a Red Supergiant Progenitor Star of a Type II-Plateau Supernova

Stephen J. Smartt,1* Justyn R. Maund,1 Margaret A. Hendry,1 Christopher A. Tout,1 Gerard F. Gilmore,1 Seppo Mattila,2 Chris R. Benn3

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 Formula 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.

1 Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK.
2 Stockholm Observatory, AlbaNova University Center, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
3 Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Apartado 321, Santa Cruz de La Palma E-38700, Spain.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sjs{at}ast.cam.ac.uk

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