0 Assigned ID: 1933 ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Fri Mar 01 23:26:43 GMT 2013) ----- HST Phase I Proposal 1933 (historic_sne.apt) successfully submitted. ----- Attempting Submission 2 (Sat Mar 02 00:00:29 GMT 2013) ----- Using resolved stellar photometry from archival HST imaging along with stellar population analysis, we propose to constrain the progenitor masses of 24 historic SNe, increasing the total number of historic SNe with well-defined masses to 30. More than doubling the sample of SNe with progenitor mass measurements will greatly improve constraints on models of massive star evolution and the production of SNe. We will obtain these measurements with an approach that obviates the need for precursor imaging. We measure the masses of SNe precursors by analyzing the stellar populations of stars surrounding the SNe. Using well-established techniques of stellar population modeling, we can age-date the coeval population of young stars surrounding each core-collapse SN. The resulting age places strong constraints on the mass of the precursor using the well-understood properties of main-sequence stars. The proposed method works even when there is no imaging prior to the SN, or when the SN position is only localized to within a few arcseconds. Hence our proposed technique can be applied to all historic SNe within 8 Mpc with broadband imaging in the HST archive. HOT STARS Default Small false false false false false SUPPORTED