Title: 

The Progenitors of Core-collapse Supernovae


Justyn Maund
IoA, Cambridge


Abstract:

Stellar evolution models predict the exact nature of massive
stars before they explode as core-collapse supernovae.
Observational confirmation of these predictions is, however,
limited.  Here I will discuss results from a project to directly
identify the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae from
fortuitous archival pre-explosion imaging.  This project was
outlined one year ago by Stephen Smartt in a colloquium given at
the IfA.  The latest results concerning the discovery of a
companion star to the progenitor of SN1993J and the discovery of
the progenitor of SN2003gd will be presented.