Massive stars lose a considerable amount of mass during their lifetime. When the star explodes as a supernova (SN), the resulting shock wave expands in the medium created by the stellar mass-loss. Thermal X-ray emission from the SN depends on the square of the density of the ambient medium, which in turn depends on the mass-loss rate (and velocity) of the progenitor wind. The emission can therefore be used to probe the stellar mass-loss in the decades or centuries before the star's death. We have aggregated together data available in the literature, or analysed by us, to compute the X-ray lightcurves of almost all young supernovae detectable in X-rays. We use this database to explore the mass-loss rates of massive stars that collapse to form supernovae. Mass-loss rates are lowest for the common Type IIP supernovae, but increase by several orders of magnitude for the highest luminosity X-ray SNe.
Keywords: X-rays: general; astronomical data bases: miscellaneous; circumstellar matter; outflows; radiation mechanisms: thermal; shock waves; stars: Wolf-Rayet; stars: mass loss; stars: winds; supernovae: general.