The core of a star of at least 8 M⊙ will collapse into a supernova (SN), those rich in hydrogen are called Type II core-collapse supernovae (SNe). The progenitor stars for this class have mostly been observed to be evolved red supergiant stars (RSGs). However, observations of RSGs with masses up to 25-30 M⊙ exist, whereas the progenitor masses seem to cut off at 17-20 M⊙. Assuming a Salpeter initial mass function, these higher mass progenitor stars are “missing”. This has been called the ‘red supergiant problem’. Creating a large, unbiased sample of Type II SNe with detected progenitors is the key to understanding whether or not the RSG problem is a product of observational or systematic effects, or if there truly is a physical process causing this discrepancy. We present the results of a progenitor analysis for SN~2019mhm, a II-P supernova in NGC 6753, and a similar analysis for a sample of II-P SNe from the Young Supernova Experiment.
