The Creation of Compact Objects in the Local Group

The author reviews the observational evidence, derived mainly from X-ray observations, that supernovae create compact objects - neutron stars and black holes. There are now ten cases in which a point source of radiation is more or less definitely associated with a diffuse supernova remnant. However, the large majority (⪆75%) of supernova remnants exhibit no evidence of a central compact object. The author summarizes the status of X-ray surveys of Local Group galaxies.