Can the degenerate carbon-oxygen cores of single stars reach the Chandrasekhar limit ?

The luminosity of some asymptotic giant branch stars in the SMC is high enough that the final phase of the evolution may be a supernova burst. This type of star is not found in the LMC. The comparison of theoretical and observed luminosity distributions of stars in the Magellanic clouds shows that the mass loss rate of high-luminosity asymptotic giant branch stars in the LMC is about one order of magnitude larger than in the SMC.