What really happened in ST: TWoK with Reliant's sensors?

[Praeothmin]

(idea came from a thread at SDN which I thought interesting)

15 years ago, Kirk left Khan on Ceti Alpha V after the "superman"'s thwarted attempt at taking over the Enterprise.

In ST: TWoK, Reliant arrives in the Ceti Alpha system looking for a barren planet to test Genesis on it.
They scan what they believe is Ceti Alpha VI, but is in reality Ceti Alpha V.
My question is:
How the heck did they not see the system only had 5 remaining planets, if Ceti Alpha VI had indeed exploded?

I mean, sensors that can ordinarily detect life-form numbers on a planet, radio signals light-years away, weren't even able to tell the crew of Reliant that 1 entire lanet wasmissing, in their 6 planet system?

One hypothesis that was advanced (which has some merit, even though it may need refinements) was that Ceti Alpha V and VI were kind of "twin-planets", with close orbits around their suns, and that when whatever happened to Ceti Alpha VI (which wasn't truly destroyed, thus still having 6 planets in the system) simply affected their orbits.

What if, the events that affected Ceti Alpha V and VI shifted their orbits, and made them a bit like Pluto and Neptune, so that at in the years folloing Khan's marooning, Ceti Alpha V became the fartest planet out, and thus when Reliant came, they scanned, and saw 6 planets, and they assumed the fartest one being Ceti Alpha VI, while it was in fact the "shifted" Ceti Alpha V.

What do you guys think?

[The Corporal]

Enviromental castrophe (other than exploding planet)? Maybe the planet had exploded but not enough to prevent it reforming and the Reliant did not do a detailed scan?

I was never quite clear on whether or not the Ceti Alpha system had been fully charted or if it had been a probe flyby. So perhaps they were working with outdated info and didn't bother to update, just counting the planets and went to six.

[Praeothmin]

So perhaps they were working with outdated info and didn't bother to update, just counting the planets and went to six.

In a society that always seem to "overly scan" everything, it seems implausible.
Also, the planet counting could only work if the system has more then 6 planets, and the numerals start from the outside of the system, counting towards the system's sun.

And you know as well as I do that, with the computers telling them automatically if they fart "out-of-phase", a scan of the system being different then Starfleet's records would have been pointed out by Majel Barrett... er, the computer... :)

[The Corporal]

I think I'm just going to chalk this up to the SO and Chekov being drunk. ;)

[Praeothmin]

Yeah, that russian Vodka sure wreaks havok with sensor sweeps... :)

[Mr. Oragahn]

What if, the events that affected Ceti Alpha V and VI shifted their orbits, and made them a bit like Pluto and Neptune, so that at in the years folloing Khan's marooning, Ceti Alpha V became the fartest planet out, and thus when Reliant came, they scanned, and saw 6 planets, and they assumed the fartest one being Ceti Alpha VI, while it was in fact the "shifted" Ceti Alpha V.

What do you guys think?

Depends. What do you mean by fartest?

[Mike DiCenso]

I think he meant "farthest". ;-)
-Mike

[The Corporal]

I think he meant "farthest". ;-)
-Mike

I dunno, I find the idea of a gas propelled planet to be oddly interesting.

[Praeothmin]

How do you think Gas Giants are made? ;)

Yeah, I meant the "farthest" from the sun...