Wikipedia article of the day for August 15, 2026

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 15, 2026 is Mesklin.
Mesklin is a fictional planet created by Hal Clement and used in his hard science fiction stories, starting with Mission of Gravity (1954). Alongside the novel's original 1953 serialization in Astounding Science Fiction, Clement published an essay titled "Whirligig World" on how he designed the planet. The idea came from an object that was believed to exist in the 61 Cygni system, possibly an extrasolar planet. The planet is distinctive for the interaction of its strong gravity with the centrifugal force due to its fast rotation, giving it a gradient in the perceived force of gravity from 3 g on the equator to 665 g on the planet's poles (diagram pictured). It is inhabited by native lifeforms, including an intelligent centipede-like species, the Mesklinites. Mesklin is considered an example of hard science fiction worldbuilding, an exotic milieu that accords with known facts and laws of physics. While the planet is dissimilar to Earth, its inhabitants are commonly regarded as humanlike in behaviour.