The Progenitor of Supernova 2011dh/PTF11eon in Messier 51
  We have identified a luminous star at the position of supernova (SN)
2011dh/PTF11eon, in pre-SN archival, multi-band images of the nearby, nearly
face-on galaxy Messier 51 (M51) obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope with the
Advanced Camera for Surveys. This identification has been confirmed, to the
highest available astrometric precision, using a Keck-II adaptive-optics image.
The available early-time spectra and photometry indicate that the SN is a
stripped-envelope, core-collapse Type IIb, with a more compact progenitor
(radius ~1e11 cm) than was the case for the well-studied SN IIb 1993J. We infer
that the extinction to SN 2011dh and its progenitor arises from a low Galactic
foreground contribution, and that the SN environment is of roughly solar
metallicity. The detected object has absolute magnitude M_V^0 ~ -7.7 and
effective temperature ~6000 K. The star's radius, ~1e13 cm, is more extended
than what has been inferred for the SN progenitor. We speculate that the
detected star is either an unrelated star very near the position of the actual
progenitor, or, more likely, the progenitor's companion in a mass-transfer
binary system. The position of the detected star in a Hertzsprung-Russell
diagram is consistent with an initial mass of 17--19 Msun. The light of this
star could easily conceal, even in the ultraviolet, the presence of a stripped,
compact, very hot (~1e5 K), nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet star progenitor.
