Possible Detection of the Progenitor of the Type II Supernova SN 2023ixf

Abstract

Stellar evolution theory predicts multiple pathways to the explosive deaths of stars as supernovae. Locating and characterizing the progenitors of well-studied supernovae is important to constrain the theory and to justify and design future surveys to improve on progenitor detections. Here we report the serendipitous preexplosion imaging, by the Hubble Space Telescope, of SN 2023ixf, one of the nearest extragalactic supernovae ever discovered, in the galaxy M101. The extremely red color and absolute magnitude mag suggest that the progenitor was a red supergiant. Comparison with stellar evolutionary isochrones suggests it is within the relatively low initial mass range of ∼8–10 M ⊙ and that there is likely a lot of dust present at the supernova site.