Speaker
Description
Every year, dozens of core-collapse supernovae are discovered in nearby galaxies with deep pre-explosion imaging that can be used to detect or place strong limits on the physical nature of their massive star progenitor systems, providing a direct connection between stars and their cataclysmic explosions observed throughout the Universe. I will discuss recent results from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes on observations of Type II supernova progenitor stars such as those from SN 2023ixf and 2025pht, their extreme variability and mid-infrared excess they reveal, and evidence for enhanced mass loss immediately before core collapse. In the next few years, we will be able to use new imaging from JWST, Euclid, and the Roman space telescope to better understand the latest stages of massive star evolution, dust production, and massive star binary interactions. Future surveys with Rubin and Roman can identify the signatures of terminal massive star evolution and find their progenitor stars before they explode, allowing us to track their explosions in real time.