  The compact elliptical galaxy M32 offers a unique testing ground for theories
of stellar evolution. Because of its proximity, solar-blind UV observations can
resolve the hot evolved stars in its center. Some of these late evolutionary
phases are too rapid to study adequately in globular clusters, and their study
in the Galactic field is often complicated by uncertainties in distance and
reddening. Using the UV cameras on the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, we
have obtained a deep color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of the M32 center. Although
the hot horizontal branch is well-detected, our CMD shows a striking scarcity
of the brighter post-asymptotic giant branch (PAGB) and post-early AGB stars
expected for a population of this size. This dearth suggests that the evolution
to the white dwarf phase may be much more rapid than that predicted by
canonical evolutionary tracks for low-mass stars.
