[1] Earth-based radar observations of the spin state of Mercury at 35 epochs between 2002 and 2012 reveal that its spin axis is tilted by (2.04 AE 0.08) arc min with respect to the orbit normal. The direction of the tilt suggests that Mercury is in or near a Cassini state. Observed rotation rate variations clearly exhibit an 88-day libration pattern which is due to solar gravitational torques acting on the asymmetrically shaped planet. The amplitude of the forced libration, (38.5 AE 1.6) arc sec, corresponds to a longitudinal displacement of $450 m at the equator. Combining these measurements of the spin properties with second-degree gravitational harmonics (Smith et al., 2012) provides an estimate of the polar moment of inertia of Mercury C/MR 2 = 0.346 AE 0.014, where M and R are Mercury's mass and radius. The fraction of the moment that corresponds to the outer librating shell, which can be used to estimate the size of the core, is C m /C = 0.431 AE 0.025.

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We report on radio observations of the 1999 September event of the X-ray transient V4641 Sgr (\XTE J1819[254\SAX J1819.3[2525). This event was extremely rapid in its rise and decay across radio, optical, and X-ray wavelengths ; the X-rays rose to 12 crab within 8 hr and faded to below 0.1 crab in less than 2 hr. Radio observations were made with seven telescopes during the Ðrst day following the onset of the strong X-ray event, revealing a strong radio source that was detected for 3 further weeks by the more sensitive telescopes. The radio source was resolved even in the Ðrst Very Large Array (VLA) images (September 16.027 UT), being long with an axis ratio of at least 10 : 1. The total Ñux D0A .25 density decayed by a factor of D4 over the Ðrst day, and by September 17.94 UT the radio emission was conÐned to a slowly decaying, marginally resolved remnant located at one side of the early elongated emission. The H I absorption spectrum gives a minimum kinematic distance of about 400 pc ; various other arguments suggest that the true distance is not much greater than this. The inferred proper motions for the early extended emission day~1) correspond to v/c D 1.0È (0A .4È1A .1 3.2 (d/0.5 kpc), and this together with the radio morphology argues that this is a relativistic jet source like GRS 1915]105 and GRO J1655[40. The proper motion of the late-time remnant is at least 100 times smaller. One simple interpretation posits the ejection of a single short-lived jet segment, followed by a more slowly decaying, optically thin jet segment ejection. These two components can explain both the multifrequency radio light curves and the radio images. The most likely parameters for the fast-jet system with net-averaged proper motion of day~1, assuming d \ 0.5 kpc, are v D 0.85c and D0A .4 i D 63¡, where i is the inclination to the line of sight. The corresponding apparent velocities are 1.4c and 0.6c for the approaching and receding jets, making V4641 Sgr the closest superluminal jet source known.

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