The type IIb SN 2008ax: the nature of the progenitor

: Crockett RM, Eldridge JJ, Smartt SJ, Pastorello A, Gal-Yam A, Fox DB, Leonard DC, Kasliwal MM, Mattila S, Maund JR, Stephens AW, Danziger IJ

Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

: 2008

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

: MON NOT R ASTRON SOC

: 391

: 1

: L5

: L9

: 5

: 0035-8711

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-3933.2008.00540.x

A source coincident with the position of the type IIb supernova (SN) 2008ax is identified in pre-explosion Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations in three optical filters. We identify and constrain two possible progenitor systems: (i) a single massive star that lost most of its hydrogen envelope through radiatively driven mass-loss processes, prior to exploding as a helium-rich Wolf-Rayet star with a residual hydrogen envelope, and (ii) an interacting binary in a low-mass cluster producing a stripped progenitor. Late time, high-resolution observations along with detailed modelling of the SN will be required to reveal the true nature of this progenitor star.