The Massive Progenitor of the Type II-Linear SN 2009kr

• Main Authors: Elias-Rosa, N, Van Dyk, S. D, Li, W, Miller, A. A, Silverman, J. M, Ganeshalingam, M, Boden, A. F, Kasliwal, M. M, Vinko, J, Cuillandre, J. -C, Filippenko, A. V, Steele, T. N, Bloom, J. S, Griffith, C. V, Kleiserand, I. K. W, Foley, R. J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 03-04-2010
• Subjects: Physics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.0912.2880

Astrophys.J.714:L254-L259,2010 We present early-time photometric and spectroscopic observations of supernova
(SN) 2009kr in NGC 1832. We find that its properties to date support its
classification as Type II-linear (SN II-L), a relatively rare subclass of
core-collapse supernovae (SNe). We have also identified a candidate for the SN
progenitor star through comparison of pre-explosion, archival images taken with
WFPC2 onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) with SN images obtained using
adaptive optics (AO) plus NIRC2 on the 10-m Keck-II telescope. Although the
host galaxy's substantial distance (~26 Mpc) results in large uncertainties in
the relative astrometry, we find that if this candidate is indeed the
progenitor, it is a highly luminous (M_V = -7.8 mag) yellow supergiant with
initial mass ~18-24 M_sun. This would be the first time that a SN II-L
progenitor has been directly identified. Its mass may be a bridge between the
upper initial mass limit for the more common Type II-plateau SNe (SNe II-P) and
the inferred initial mass estimate for one Type II-narrow SN (SN IIn).