ON THE PROGENITOR AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF THE TYPE II SUPERNOVA 2009kr

We identify a source coincident with SN 2009kr in Hubble Space Telescope pre-explosion images. The object appears to be a single point source with an intrinsic color V − I = 1.1 ± 0.25 and M V = −7.6 ± 0.6. If this is a single star, it would be a yellow supergiant of log L / L ☉ ∼ 5.1 and a mass of 15 +5 −4 M ☉ . The spatial resolution does not allow us yet to definitively determine if the progenitor object is a single star, a binary system, or a compact cluster. We show that the early light curve is similar to a Type IIL SN, but the prominent Hα P-Cygni profiles and the signature of the end of a recombination phase are reminiscent of a Type IIP. The evolution of the expanding ejecta will play an important role in understanding the progenitor object.