The Red Supergiant Progenitor of the Type II Supernova 2024abfl

Linkage between core-collapse supernovae (SNe) and their progenitors is not fully understood and ongoing effort of searching and identifying the progenitors is needed. $\mathrm{S}\mathrm{N}2024\mathrm{a}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{f}\mathrm{l}$ is a recent Type II supernova exploded in the nearby star-bursting galaxy $\mathrm{N}\mathrm{G}\mathrm{C}2146$, which is also the host galaxy of $\mathrm{S}\mathrm{N}2018\mathrm{z}\mathrm{d}$. From archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, we have found a red source (${\mathrm{m}}_{\mathrm{F}814\mathrm{W}}\sim 25$) near the location (angular distance $\le 0.2\mathrm{"}$) of $\mathrm{S}\mathrm{N}2024\mathrm{a}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{f}\mathrm{l}$ before its explosion. With F814W and F606W photometry, we found that the properties of this source matched a typical red supergiant (RSG) moderately reddened by interstellar dust at the distance of the host galaxy. We conclude that the $\mathrm{S}\mathrm{N}2024\mathrm{a}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{f}\mathrm{l}$ had an RSG progenitor with initial mass of $10{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$–$16{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$.