Abstract
Massive stars end their lives exploding like supernovae (SNe) after a catastrophic gravitational collapse. Powerful shock fronts originated after the explosion irreversibly modify the surrounding matter creating large bubbles, compressing nearby clouds, etc. This work reviews the mechanisms that lead to the collapse and explosion of massive stars and the possible connections between the precursor star, the explosion mechanism and the supernova remnant (SNR). The disagreement between expected and observed numbers of SNRs and of associated neutron stars in our Galaxy, is discussed.
