Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a flurry of studies that have emphasised the important role that dust plays in our understanding of the near and distant Universe. The short time-scales required for dust enrichment make core-collapse supernovae rather natural candidates for dust producers in the early Universe. Yet, direct evidence that grains condense in such supernovae is rather sparse. Here, I will discuss recent results, and attempt to put the role of core-collapse supernovae as dust producers into perspective. I will also review what is currently known about the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae, and how this ties into the observed properties of core-collapse supernovae, including their ability to produce dust at relatively early epochs in their evolution. I will discuss how such studies might evolve in the light of current and future surveys / facilities.