A significant fraction of presolar grains found today in pristine meteorites condensed
in the ejecta of old core-collapse supernovae before the formation of the solar system,
and they are carriers of isotopic abundances imprinted from these ancient explosions.
Presolar dust are literally pieces of stars that we cannot observe or identify anymore,
but that we can touch and study in laboratories today. The comparison between the
anomalous abundances measured in many of these single grains and theoretical stellar
model predictions represents a powerful constraint for massive star evolution and for
our understanding of the core-collapse supernova engine.
I will discuss some of these isotopic abundance signatures, and how we can use them
today to learn more about the ancient supernovae where these grains formed.
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