Amaethon

Amaethon is a planet orbiting around the star HD 85512.

Characteristics
Amaethon is a world 3.6 times more massive than Earth with a surface gravity 1.4 times stronger, orbiting around its dim K-type sun at only 26% the distance of Earth from our own. It is the only major planet in its solar system.

Amaethon appears strikingly dark blue from space due to a thick atmosphere combined with aerosols produced by peculiar biological processes, and the darkness of plant life suited to a dim parent star. The surface is mostly covered by a deep ocean and two low-relief, heavily rainforested continents named Ephialtes and Otos. Being on the inner edge of HD 85512's habitable zone, Amaethon is a warm world, only rendered habitable by a suitable cloud cover, atmospheric gases, and heat-absorbing plants that maintain the average global temperature. Owing to the high average temperatures, the planet is covered in dark, thick rainforests which early settlers found extremely difficult to settle, and made it similarly difficult even 300 years after landfall.

Life on Amaethon began relatively recently, with most complex forms still remaining in the seas except for plants, insects, and some amphibians.

Etymology
Amaethon was named for the Welsh god of agriculture, reflecting the abundance of plant life deduced from extensive analysis of the atmosphere and direct imaging.

Discovery
Amaethon was discovered in 2011 by a team using the HARPS spectrograph to monitor the star's gravitational "wobble," and it received its current name after direct imaging in 2045 confirmed its habitability. Amaethon was the first habitable world discovered, and one of the first to have its habitability confirmed, which resulted in political strife for a brief period when the United States declared sovereignty over the world in 2049, and eventually sent the first manned interstellar craft to it in 2052, travelling at HQFTL speeds.