Abstract
Theory holds that a star born with an initial mass between about 8 and 140 times the mass of the Sun will end its life through the catastrophic gravitational collapse of its iron core to a neutron star or black hole. This core collapse process is thought to usually be accompanied by the ejection of the star’s envelope as a supernova. This established theory is now being tested observationally, with over three dozen core-collapse supernovae having had the properties of their progenitor stars directly measured through the examination of high-resolution images taken prior to the explosion. Here I review what has been learned from these studies and briefly examine the potential impact on stellar evolution theory, the existence of “failed supernovae”, and our understanding of the core-collapse explosion mechanism.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chevalier, R.A.: Astrophys. J. 207, 872 (1976)
Colgate, S.A., White, R.H.: Astrophys. J. 143, 626 (1966)
Crockett, R.M., et al.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 391, L5 (2008)
Dessart, L., Burrows, A., Livne, E., Ott, C.D.: Astrophys. J. Lett. 673, L43 (2008)
Eldridge, J.J., Tout, C.A.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 348, 201 (2004)
Eldridge, J.J., Mattila, S., Smartt, S.J.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 376, L52 (2007)
Elias-Rosa, N., et al.: Astrophys. J. 706, 1174 (2009)
Elias-Rosa, N., et al.: Astrophys. J. Lett. 714, L254 (2010)
Figer, D.F.: Nature 434, 192 (2005)
Filippenko, A.V.: In: van der Hucht, K.A., Bidayat, B. (eds.) IAU Symposium 143: Wolf-Rayet Stars and Interrelations with Other Massive Stars in Galaxies, vol. 143, p. 529. Kluwer, Dordrecht (1991)
Filippenko, A.V.: Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 35, 309 (1997)
Fraser, M., et al.: Astrophys. J. Lett. 714, L280 (2010)
Gal-Yam, A., Leonard, D.C.: Nature 458, 865 (2009)
Gal-Yam, A., et al.: Astrophys. J. 656, 372 (2007)
Gal-Yam, A., et al.: Nature 462, 624 (2009)
Heger, A., Langer, N.: Astrophys. J. 544, 1016 (2000)
Heger, A., Fryer, C.L., Woosley, S.E., Langer, N., Hartmann, D.H.: Astrophys. J. 591, 288 (2003)
Kitaura, F.S., Janka, H.-T., Hillebrandt, W.: Astron. Astrophys. 450, 345 (2006)
Kochanek, C.S., Beacom, J.F., Kistler, M.D., Prieto, J.L., Stanek, K.Z., Thompson, T.A., Yüksel, H.: Astrophys. J. 684, 1336 (2008)
Leonard, D.C.: In: Leitherer, C., Bennett, Ph.D., Morris, P.W., van Loon, J.Th. (eds.): Proceedings of Hot and Cool: Bridging Gaps in Massive Star Evolution, vol. 425, p. 79. ASP, San Francisco (2010)
Leonard, D.C., et al.: Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 114, 35 (2002)
Leonard, D.C., Gal-Yam, A., Fox, D.B., Cameron, P.B., Johansson, E.M., Kraus, A.L., Mignant, D.L., van Dam, M.A.: Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 120, 1259 (2008)
Levesque, E.M., Massey, P., Olsen, K.A.G., Plez, B., Josselin, E., Maeder, A., Meynet, G.: Astrophys. J. 628, 973 (2005)
Maeder, A., Conti, P.S.: Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 32, 227 (1994)
Maoz, D., Mannucci, F., Li, W., Filippenko, A.V., Della Valle, M., Panagia, N.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., (2010, accepted). ArXiv e-prints 1002.3056
Mattila, S., Smartt, S.J., Eldridge, J.J., Maund, J.R., Crockett, R.M., Danziger, I.J.: Astrophys. J. Lett. 688, L91 (2008)
Maund, J.R., Smartt, S.J.: Science 324, 486 (2009)
Maund, J.R., Smartt, S.J., Kudritzki, R.P., Podsiadlowski, P., Gilmore, G.F.: Nature 427, 129 (2004)
Meynet, G., Maeder, A.: Astron. Astrophys. 361, 101 (2000)
Moriya, T., Tominaga, N., Tanaka, M., Maeda, K., Nomoto, K.: Astrophys. J. Lett. 717, L83 (2010)
Morris, T., Podsiadlowski, P.: Science 315, 1103 (2007)
Murphy, J.W., Burrows, A.: Astrophys. J. 688, 1159 (2008)
Nomoto, K.I., Iwamoto, K., Suzuki, T.: Phys. Rep. 256, 173 (1995)
Pastorello, A., et al.: Nature 447, 829 (2007)
Rakavy, G., Shaviv, G.: Astrophys. J. 148, 803 (1967)
Smartt, S.J.: Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 47, 63 (2009)
Smith, N., Owocki, S.P.: Astrophys. J. Lett. 645, L45 (2006)
Smith, N., Vink, J.S., de Koter, A.: Astrophys. J. 615, 475 (2004)
Thompson, L.A.: Astrophys. J. Lett. 257, L63 (1982)
van Dyk, S.D., et al.: Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 111, 313 (1999)
Wheeler, J.C., Meier, D.L., Wilson, J.R.: Astrophys. J. 568, 807 (2002)
Woosley, S.E., Heger, A., Weaver, T.A.: Rev. Mod. Phys. 74, 1015 (2002)
Xu, H.Y., Li, Y.: Astron. Astrophys. 418, 213 (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Leonard, D.C. On the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae. Astrophys Space Sci 336, 117–122 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-010-0530-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-010-0530-8