Massive stars dying alone: the remote environment of SN 2010jp and its
  associated late-time source
  We present late-time images of the site of the peculiar jet-driven TypeIIn
supernova SN2010jp, including HST images taken 2-5 yr post explosion and deep
ground-based images over a similar time. These are used to characterise its
unusually remote environment and to constrain the progenitor's initial mass and
age. The position of SN2010jp is found to reside along a chain of diffuse
starlight that is probably an outer spiral arm or tidal tail of the interacting
galaxy pair NGC2207/IC2163. There is one bright HII region projected within 1
kpc, and there is faint extended Halpha emission immediately surrounding the
continuum source at the position of SN2010jp, which has $M_{F555W} = -7.7 (\pm
0.2)$ mag. In principle, the lingering light could arise from late-time
circumstellar material (CSM) interaction, an evolved supergiant, a host star
cluster, or some combination of these. Steady flux over 3 yr and a lack of
strong, spatially unresolved Halpha emission make ongoing CSM interaction
unlikely. If an evolved supergiant dominates, its observed luminosity implies
an initial mass of roughly 22 $M_{\odot}$ and an age older than roughly 8 Myr.
If the source is a star cluster, then its colour and absolute magnitude imply
an age of 8-13 Myr and a modest cluster initial mass of log($M/M_{\odot}$) =
3.6-3.8. Extended Halpha emission out to a radius of 30 pc reveals a faint
evolved HII region, pointing to recent star formation with at least one late
O-type star. Based on these various clues, we conclude that the progenitor of
SN2010jp had a likely initial mass of 18-22 $M_{\odot}$.
