We report on the discovery of WASP-12b, a new transiting extrasolar planet with R pl = 1.79 +0.09 −0.09 R J and M pl = 1.41 +0.10 −0.10 M J . The planet and host star properties were derived from a Monte Carlo Markov chain analysis of the transit photometry and radial velocity data. Furthermore, by comparing the stellar spectrum with theoretical spectra and stellar evolution models, we determined that the host star is a supersolar metallicity ([M/H]= 0.3 +0.05 −0.15 ), late-F (T eff = 6300 +200 −100 K) star which is evolving off the zero-age main sequence. The planet has an equilibrium temperature of T eq = 2516 K caused by its very short period orbit (P = 1.09 days) around the hot, twelfth magnitude host star. WASP-12b has the largest radius of any transiting planet yet detected. It is also the most heavily irradiated and the shortest period planet in the literature.

We present high spectral resolution VLT observations of the BAL quasar SDSS J0318-0600. This high quality data set allows us to extract accurate ionic column densities and determine an electron number density of n e =10 3.3±0.2 cm −3 for the main outflow absorption component. The heavily reddened spectrum of SDSS J0318-0600 requires purely silicate dust with a reddening curve characteristic of predominately large grains, from which we estimate the bolometric luminosity. We carry out photoionization modeling to determine the total column density, ionization parameter and distance of the gas and find that the photionization models suggest abundances greater than solar. Due to the uncertainty in the location of the dust extinction, we arrive at two viable distances for the main ouflow component from the central source, 6 and 18 kpc, where we consider the 6 kpc location as somewhat more physically plausable. Assuming the canonical global covering of 20% for the outflow and a distance of 6 kpc, our analysis yields a mass flux of 120 M ⊙ yr −1 and a kinetic luminosity that is ∼0.1% of the bolometric luminosity of the object. Should the dust be part of the outflow, then these values are ∼4× larger. The large mass flux and kinetic luminosity make this outflow a significant contributor to AGN feedback processes.

(1). It was rapidly shown to be a type II-Plateau (II-P) supernova which was discovered about 87 days after explosion (2-5). The progenitors of type II-P supernovae have long been thought to be red supergiant stars with initial masses greater than 8-10M ! that have retained their hydrogen envelopes before core-collapse. This model accounts for the 2 to 3 month long plateau phases seen in the lightcurves of SNe II-P, the existence of hydrogen P-Cygni profiles in the early time spectra and the estimated