The masses and the evolutionary states of the progenitors of core-collapse
supernovae are not well constrained by direct observations. Stellar evolution
theory generally predicts that massive stars with initial masses less than
about 30M_sol should undergo core-collapse when they are cool M-type
supergiants. However the only two detections of a SN progenitor before
explosion are SN1987A and SN1993J, and neither of these was an M-type
supergiant. Attempting to identify the progenitors of supernovae is a difficult
task, as precisely predicting the time of explosion of a massive star is
impossible for obvious reasons. There are several different types of supernovae
which have different spectral and photometric evolution, and how exactly these
are related to the evolutionary states of the progenitor stars is not currently
known. I will describe a novel project which may allow the direct
identification of core-collapse supernovae progenitors on pre-explosion images
of resolved, nearby galaxies. This project is now possible with the excellent
image archives maintained by several facilities and will be enhanced by the new
initiatives to create Virtual Observatories, the earliest of which ASTROVIRTEL
is already producing results.Comment: To appear in the Euroconference proceedings of "The Evolution of
Galaxies II. Basic Building Blocks", held in La Renunion, October 2001, eds.
M. Sauvage, et al., 5 pages inc. 2 figs, (Kluwer
