Question: Re-watching the 2009 movie for the first time after answering [this question about shield collisions](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/9312/what-would-happen-in-the-star-trek-universe-if-shields-collided), I noticed the following:

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> *Enterprise* is about to drop out of warp in Vulcan space.
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> Captain Pike: Raise shields, red alert.
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> *Enterprise* drops out of warp, encounters the debris field of the other star fleet vessels and **suffers hull damage due to a low velocity graze against a piece of debris even though its shields are up and fully charged.**
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> 
> 

The shields are capable of pushing interstellar dust out of the way at high impulse (which is relativistic), *and* surviving photon torpedo detonations.

So what happened?

Answer: 
I'd have to watch that scene again - but it could be that the debris was already inside the shield's surface area. 

In other *Star Trek* material (particularly *TNG*, but other series, too), shields appear to be ellipsoid shells around the ship, so it is possible that the debris was already inside as the shield was powering up.

An alternative explanation is that the shield technology at the time of the movie isn't as good as the other time periods we see in *Star Trek* (it is set prior to *TOS*).
The *Enterprise* in this episode is a new and untried ship with an inexperienced crew.

The shields are designed to protect the hull of the starship, so a piece of another starship of the same design could possibly breach the shields, as the shields are designed to protect against energy weapons and foreign materials, Another Federation starship could pass through this, theoretically.