star trek - How can Delta Vega be so close to Vulcan?

In the new alternate timeline Star Trek movie, the icy M class planet Delta Vega is so close to Vulcan that the latter planet has an angular diameter that is comparable to Earth's moon when seen from the former. It is in fact close enough for an escape pod to reach it from the vicinity of Vulcan.

The Question:

In this case, should not Vulcan's catalogue name be Gamma Vega? Would this make Vulcan the third planet orbiting the star Vega? This star is 25 light years from Earth. Yet the Vulcan system is said to be 16 light years from Earth, which is widely believed to be the same as the real star system 40 Eridani A (though never canonically confirmed).

Also, why is a habitable planet so close to Vulcan not heavily colonized by Vulcans?

Answer

There's not a lot of in-universe information, although Memory-Alpha does say (without citation) that "Its orbit carried it near enough to Vulcan that the other planet could be seen from Delta Vega's surface." Perhaps Delta Vega had a very eccentric orbit. Although that's purely speculation, and it wouldn't explain Vulcan being in orbit around Vega.

From a real-world perspective, Roberto Orci talked about naming the planet after one from the TOS episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before":

"We moved the planet to suit our purposes. The familiarity of the name seemed more important as an Easter egg, than a new name with no importance."

And he also touched on motivation behind the scene in question in an online Q&A thread (comment 464):

"I prefer to think of Delta Vega as being in close orbit (although it could be a moon), but nonetheless, we like to think of that sequence as impressionistic for a general audience. In other words, Nero could’ve beamed Spock prime down to Delta Vega with a telescope or some other type of measuring device to allow Spock to experience the pain of perceiving the destruction of his home world, but that simply isn’t very cinematic."

So unfortunately, you probably just have to chalk it down to "poetic license".

Comments

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