Mesklin

Mesklin is one of the oddest inhabited planets known in the Milky Way Galaxy. A huge terrestrial world known for its extremely flattened shape, as well as its beautiful ring system. While the equatorial diameter is 76,800 km; its axis from pole to pole is less than half of that. Its surface gravity varies from about 3 times that of Earth at the poles to over 200 times Earth's at the equator. The native Mesklinites are uniquely adapted to live in this extraordinary environment.

The planet is part of a binary star system, in eccentric orbit around the primary star Belne, but also receiving smaller amounts of light and heat from the secondary sun, Esstes. While a Mesklin year lasts about 4.8 Earth years, the days are extremely short, as its rotation period is only about 18 minutes. Its temperature is frigid, and the planet is covered in seas of liquid methane, which native life forms use as solvent in their biochemistry. The atmosphere is rich in hydrogen, rather than oxygen, the latter which would be lethal for the natives.