The amount of ultraviolet irradiation and ablation experienced by a planet depends strongly on the temperature of its host star. Of the thousands of extrasolar planets now known, only six have been found that transit hot, A-type stars (with temperatures of 7,300-10,000 kelvin), and no planets are known to transit the even hotter B-type stars. For example, WASP-33 is an A-type star with a temperature of about 7,430 kelvin, which hosts the hottest known transiting planet, WASP-33b (ref. 1); the planet is itself as hot as a red dwarf star of type M (ref. 2). WASP-33b displays a large heat differential between its dayside and nightside, and is highly inflated-traits that have been linked to high insolation. However, even at the temperature of its dayside, its atmosphere probably resembles the molecule-dominated atmospheres of other planets and, given the level of ultraviolet irradiation it experiences, its atmosphere is unlikely to be substantially ablated over the lifetime of its star. Here we report observations of the bright star HD 195689 (also known as KELT-9), which reveal a close-in (orbital period of about 1.48 days) transiting giant planet, KELT-9b. At approximately 10,170 kelvin, the host star is at the dividing line between stars of type A and B, and we measure the dayside temperature of KELT-9b to be about 4,600 kelvin. This is as hot as stars of stellar type K4 (ref. 5). The molecules in K stars are entirely dissociated, and so the primary sources of opacity in the dayside atmosphere of KELT-9b are probably atomic metals. Furthermore, KELT-9b receives 700 times more extreme-ultraviolet radiation (that is, with wavelengths shorter than 91.2 nanometres) than WASP-33b, leading to a predicted range of mass-loss rates that could leave the planet largely stripped of its envelope during the main-sequence lifetime of the host star.

We present our extensive observations of the radio emission from supernova (SN) 1993J, in M 81 (NGC 3031), made with the Very Large Array, at 90, 20, 6, 3.6, 2, 1.2, and 0.7 cm, as well as numerous measurements from other telescopes and at other wavelengths. The combined data set constitutes probably the most detailed set of measurements ever established for any SN outside of the Local Group in any wavelength range. Only the very subluminous SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud has been the subject of such an intensive observational program. The radio emission evolves regularly in both time and frequency, and the usual interpretation in terms of shock interaction with a circumstellar medium (CSM) formed by a pre-supernova stellar wind describes the observations rather well considering the complexity of the phenomenon. However: 1) The highest frequency measurements at 85 -110 GHz at early times (< 40 days) are not well fitted by the parameterization which describes the cm wavelength measurements rather well. 2) At mid-cm wavelengths there is often deviation from the fitted radio light curves, particularly near the peak flux density, and considerable shorter term deviations in the declining portion when the emission has become optically thin. 3) At a time ∼ 3100 days after shock breakout, the decline rate of the radio emission steepens from (t +β ) β ∼ −0.7 to β ∼ −2.7 without change in the spectral index (ν +α ; α ∼ −0.81). However, this decline is best described not as a power-law, but as an exponential decay starting at day 3100 with an e-folding time of ∼ 1100 days. 4) The best overall fit to all of the data is a model including both non-thermal synchrotron self-absorption (SSA) and a thermal free-free absorbing (FFA) components at early times, evolving to a constant spectral index, optically thin decline rate, until a break in that decline rate at day ∼ 3100 as mentioned above. Moreover, neither a purely SSA nor a purely FFA absorbing models can provide a fit that simultaneously reproduces the light curves, the spectral index evolution, and the brightness temperature evolution. 5) The radio and X-ray light curves display quite similar behavior and both suggest a sudden drop in the supernova progenitor mass-loss rate at ∼ 8000 years prior to shock breakout.

We present and discuss the radio observations of 27 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), observed over two decades with the Very Large Array. No SN Ia has been detected so far in the radio, implying a very low density for any possible circumstellar material established by the progenitor, or progenitor system, before explosion. We derive 2 upper limits to a steady mass-loss rate for individual SN systems as low as $3 ; 10 À8 M yr À1, which argues strongly against white dwarf accretion via a stellar wind from a massive binary companion in the symbiotic star, an example of the ''single-degenerate'' scenario. However, a white dwarf accreting from a relatively low mass companion via a sufficiently high efficiency (>60%Y80%) Roche lobe overflow is still consistent with our limits. The ''doubledegenerate'' merger scenario also cannot be excluded.

We describe the radio evolution of supernova (SN) 2001ig in NGC 7424, from 700 d of multifrequency monitoring with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and the Very Large Array (VLA). We find that deviations of the radio light curves at each frequency from the standard ‘minishell’ model are consistent with density modulations in the circumstellar medium (CSM), which seem to recur with a period near 150 d. One possibility is that these are due to enhanced mass loss from thermal pulses in an asymptotic giant branch star progenitor. A more likely scenario, however, is that the progenitor was a Wolf–Rayet (WR) star, whose stellar wind collided with that from a massive hot companion on an eccentric 100‐d orbit, leading to a regular build‐up of CSM material on the required time and spatial scales. Recent observations of ‘dusty pinwheels’ in WR binary systems lend credibility to this model. Since such binary systems are also thought to provide the necessary conditions for envelope stripping which would cause the WR star to appear as a Type Ib/c SN event rather than a Type II, these radio observations of SN 2001ig may provide the key to linking Type Ib/c SNe to Type IIb events, and even to some types of gamma‐ray bursts.