Presupernova evolution and explosion of massive stars with mass loss

We review the main properties of solar metallicity massive stars in the range11-120 Msun. The influence of the mass loss on the hydrostatic burning stagesas well as the final explosion is discussed in some detail. We find that theminimum masses that enter the WNL, WNE and WC stages are 30 Msun, 35 Msun and40 Msun respectively; the limiting mass between stars exploding as SNII andSNIb/c is between 30 and 35 Msun; the limiting mass between stars formingneutron stars and black holes after the explosion is between 25-30 Msun. Wealso discuss the properties of the chemical yields integrated over a SalpeterIMF and we find that stars with M>=35 Msun contribute for ~60% to theproduction of C, N and for ~40% to the production Sc and s-process elements upto Zr, while they do not produce any intermediate mass element because of thelarge remnant massesComment: 8 pages, 5 figures. invited review talk at the Workshop "The multicoloured landscape of compact objects and their explosive origin", Cefalu' (Sicily), 11-24 June 2006, to be published by AI