VLT Detection of a Red Supergiant Progenitor of the Type II-P Supernova 2008bk

Abstract

We report the identification of a source coincident with the position of the nearby Type II-P supernova (SN) 2008bk in high-quality optical and near-infrared preexplosion images from the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). The SN position in the optical and near-infrared preexplosion images is identified to within about ‫07ע‬ and ‫04ע‬ mas, respectively, using postexplosion -band images obtained with the NAOS CONICA adaptive optics system K s on the VLT. The preexplosion source detected in four different bands is precisely coincident with SN 2008bk and is consistent with being dominated by a single point source. We determine the nature of the point source using the STARS stellar evolutionary models and find that its colors and luminosity are consistent with the source being a red supergiant progenitor of SN 2008bk with an initial mass of 8.5 ‫ע‬ 1.0 M .