I didn't read the later posts so I don't know if either of you did the math.
A light second is equal to 299,792,458 meters or 299,795.458 kilometers. 11 light seconds equals 3,297,717.038 kilometers. One astronomical unit (AU) the average distance of Earth fom the Sun, is now defined as 149,597,870.700 kilometers. So eleven light seconds is approximately equal to 0.022043876 AU.
So the question becomes is there any known solar system where there are two or more exoplanets in the circumstellar habitable zone of the star, including both the third and fourth planets from the star, with the third planet only 11 light seconds from the star?
Since there are only about 4,000 plus exoplanets known at the present time, the odds against such a system having been discovered would seem to be quite large.
In the TRAPPIST-1 system, the 3rd and 4th planets in distance from the star, ,
TRAPPIST-1 d and TRAPPIST-1 e orbit TRAPPIST-1 within the circumstellar habitable zone in orbits with semi-major axis of about 0.02227 and 0.02925 AU respectively.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST-1#Planetary_system
Of course the orbit of TRAPPIST-1 d has a semi-major axis of 0.02227 AU, which is 1.010298 times 11 light minutes or 0.022043 AU.
So if someone arbitrarily assumes that Veridian III must be exactly 11 light seconds from Veridian, then they can claim that there is no known exoplanet in the circumstellar habitable zone of its star and also as close to its star as veridian three is supposed to be. I am not sure that Timo wuld want to quibble over one percent of the semi-major axis.
More logical quibbles would be based on the spectral type of TRAPPIST-1 and whether it is a suitable type of star to have habitable planets, and on the relative widths of circumstellar habitable zones.
Astronomers began to realize which types of stars are mostly to have habitable planets by the 1950s. I know that because I have read YA science fiction novels by Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones (1953), and Time for the Stars (1956), which correctly state that specral type G stars are the mostl likely to have habitable planets.
Habitable Planets for Man, Stephen H. Dole, 1964, described what was necessary for a planet to be habitable, including which types of stars could have habitable planets, in Chapter 4. The Astronomical Parameters,the section on the properties of the primaary, on pages 67 to 72. TRAPPIST-1, with a mass of 0.0898 the mass of the Sun, and a spectral type M8V, is far too lightweight and dim to have habitable planets according to Dole. And the same goes for any star so dim that a habitable planet could be only 11 light secodns from the star.
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/commercial_books/2007/RAND_CB179-1.pdf
However, there is some speculation that planets in the circumstellar habitable zones of dim red dwarfs like TRAPPIST-1 might possibly be habitable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_habitability#Red_dwarf_systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitability_of_red_dwarf_systems
Anyway, various Star Trek productions have depicted habitable planets orbiting many stars which are outside the range of stars considered likely to have habitable planets by astrobiologists. Perhaps in Star Trek highly advanced civilizations prefer to terraform planets orbiting unsuitable stars instead of colonizing naturally habitable planets and possibly preventing the future evolution of intelligent ife on those planets.
The other possible scientific objection is the possible width of the circumstellar habitable zone, the distance range from a star where planets could have liquid water and thus possibly have life. To find the inner and outer edges of the circumstellar habitable zone of a specific star, one can take the inner and outer edges of the circumstellar habitable zone of the Sun and mulitply them by the luminosity of that star relative to the Sun.
Unfortunately there are widely differing estimates and calculations of the inner and outer edges of the circumstellar habitable zone of the Sun:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstellar_habitable_zone#Solar_System_estimates
Someone could take the narrowest estimations of the circumstellar habitable zone of the Sun and argue from them that no starc ould possibly have two planets in its circumstellar habitable zone, so the Veridian system is not possible.
But many Star Trek productions depict two or more habitable planets orbiting the same star.. So having two or more habitable planets a star system is perfectly possible in Star Trek, whether or not it is possible in real life.
Thus it is possible in Star Trek for Veridian III to be only 11 light minutes from its star Veridian.
So Soren's missle could have reached the star Veridian from Veridian III in about 11 seconds if it traveled at about 99.99 percent of the speed of light - a feat that in the setting of Star Trek might be even harder to do than to travel a whole AU in 11 seconds at a speed of about 45 times the speed of light.
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