Program: GN-2008B-Q-67

Recent studies have used high spatial resolution imaging of SN sites to identify the progenitors of core-collapse SNe on pre-explosion images. These studies have set constraints about the nature of massive stars and their evolution just prior to their explosion as SNe. Now, at late-times when the SNe have faded sufficiently, it is possible to return to the sites of these core-collapse SNe to search for clues about the nature of their progenitors. We request time to conduct deep, late-time, high-resolution imaging with Gemini GMOS-N of the site of the Type IIP SN 2003gd. In this program we aim to confirm our identification, that were made with HST V-band and Gemini GMOS i'-band pre-explosion images, of the red supergiant progenitor of the Type IIP SN 2003gd by observing if the object identified as the progenitor is now missing. This was the first progenitor detected for a normal core-collapse SN. The deep imaging will also allow us to probe the stellar population in the immediate vicinities of this SNe, that was previously obscured by the progenitor and the bright SN. Gemini GMOS-N permits us, for the first time since the SN explosion, to conduct controlled and deep observations of the site of this SN.