Vulcan system The Vulcan system was an inhabited star system in the Alpha Quadrant . The system consisted of the primary , 40 Eridani A , and several planet s , including and . Neighboring the Andorian system , it was located sixteen light year s from the Sol system . ( ; ; ) In 2257 , during the first Federation - Klingon War , this system was near the front line . ( ) In 2293 , the location of Vulcan in the Milky Way Galaxy was labeled in a star chart that was in Captain James T . Kirk ' s quarters aboard the . ( , " okudagram " ) " In 2258 , in the alternate reality , Delta Vega was the location of a Starfleet outpost . That year , Nero destroyed the planet Vulcan , leaving a small black hole in its place . " ( ) Appendices . Background information . The original theatrical edit of depicted four large orbs in the Vulcan sky . They were removed in the DVD release of and replaced by an orange sky . According to , the additional planets were removed for the reason that the scene took place during daytime , so a night sky was not appropriate , and they were elements that distracted the viewer from a scene intended to take place on a far - off monastic temple . Vulcan in and of itself was considered to be interesting enough without cluttering the sky with these planets . According to " " ( p . 58 ) , T ' Khut was the name of Vulcan ' s twin planet that was visible from the planet ' s surface . T ' Khut was classified as a , and had one moon . The Vulcan system also known as the 40 Eridani A System or Omicron Ceti System was a trinary star system . 40 Eridani A had a spectral type of K1V with an absolute magnitude of 6 . 0 . 40 Eridani B had a spectral type of AVII with an absolute magnitude of 11 . 2 . 40 Eridani C had a spectral type of M4V with an absolute magnitude of 12 . 3 . The distance between A and B was 400 au ; the distance between B and C was 44 au . The orbital period of this system was 248 years . According to the " " ( " Stellar Cartography " , pp . 22 - 24 & 34 ) , the Vulcan system was the 40 Eridani A system . The 40 Eridani system was known to the Vulcans as Nevasi . The primary star , 40 Eridani A ( Nevasi A ) , was class K . The innermost planet was a rocky class B planet named Ket - Cheleb . Vulcan ( T ' Khasi ) was in a co - orbital relationship with the class G planet T ' Khut ( " the Watcher " ) , which had one moon named T ' Rukhemai ( " the Eye of the Watcher " ) . The icy planetoid Delta Vega was located in the outer asteroid belt . The two companions of 40 Eridani A , 40 Eridani B ( Nevasi B ) and 40 Eridani C ( Nevasi C ) , were a white class A4 dwarf and a red flare class M4 dwarf , respectively . There has been , however , no direct canon ical reference of the Vulcan system being the 40 Eridani A system , although that is widely considered to be the case . In and , Vulcan was mentioned as being slightly over sixteen light years from Earth , the same distance between Earth and 40 Eridani A . According to text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda for on the ENT Season 4 DVD , the possibility of Vulcan being located in the 40 Eridani system originated from a suggestion by novelist James Blish . When three astronomers ( Sallie Baliunas , Robert Donahue , and George Nassiopoulas ) who had been studying the system at Mount Wilson Observatory published a letter stating that the star " 40 Eridani A could support a planet with Earth - like life " and that it would " have the Sun ' s brightness for a planet fifty million miles away " , they theorized that Vulcan could be in orbit of this star , a theory Gene Roddenberry himself supported by signing their letter , according to " Sky & Telescope " , 1991 July . Recent real - world discoveries have confirmed the likely presence of at least three planets in the Epsilon Eridani system . Vulcan , the primary of the Vulcan system , was located in the Alpha Quadrant on a star chart seen in the episode .