Why does looking directly at the sun damage your eyes?

Comments

• Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Because the lens in your eye you use to focus, acts like a burning glass, and burn the back of your eye, where what you see is focused at.

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  • all-knight-party@kbin.run ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It's like using a magnifying glass to burn an ant on the pavement, but the sun is you, you're the ant, and the sun is using your eyeball as the magnifying lens

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    • Alinor@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The sun is still the sun in this comparison. Its not like “you” is the source of light here. The back of your eye is the ant, and the lense of your eye is the magnifying glass.

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• notExactlyI20@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Cuz there is a secret alien weapon inside of it and the gov doesn’t want you to see it, so sun’s glaze blinds you

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  • Epicurus0319@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    LMAO I’m dead

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    • notExactlyI20@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Damn gov got lil homie, RIP you knew too much 🙏

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  • moody@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Jewish Space Laser, bro

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• Decoy321@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Because the sheer amount of energy going directly on your retina will burn a hole through it. It’ll also damage the photo receptor cells at the back of the eye.

  en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_retinopathy

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  • Epicurus0319@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The second part I knew, but the first part I did not. Rest assured, I never let this happen, my parents always made sure I knew not to look at the sun

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• TheBananaKing@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Ever fry an ant with a magnifying glass?

  Swap out the ant for your retinas, and that’s pretty much the deal.

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  • Burninator05@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    So that’s what happened to Ants in my Eyes Johnson.

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  • FlembleFabber@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yes above average

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• Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Wait. What?!?

  I’ve spent the last 16 years avoiding direct eye contact with my son for fear of eye damage.

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  • Epicurus0319@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Have you found that milk at the grocery store yet?

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    • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Sure did! Just need to make one more stop for smokes.

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• silencer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  On a related note, why is it that looking at the sky when there’s a lot of light, if I use both eyes it hurts, but if I keep one closed I can see the sky just fine?

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  • TheBananaKing@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That’s actually a bug; your brain averages light levels across both eyes when deciding how much to flinch.

    Don’t do it - you’re basically exposing yourself to potentially damaging light levels in the eye you keep open.

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  • nooeh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    One desensitized eye

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    • silencer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’m not sure, it doesn’t matter which one I close

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• hperrin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It’s too bright and your lens focuses that light on your retina. Like a magnifying glass focusing the sun on a leaf and setting it on fire.

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  • cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    But my eyeball has never set on fire when I looked at the sun?

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• nooeh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  There is physical damage of heating the retina with focused light, and there is chemical damage of depleting the reactions that normally occur when light is translated into neural signals in the retina.

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• nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Wikipedia says that the heating from the focused light is minimal because the retina is surrounded with fluid, similarly to how a balloon filled, even partially, with water won’t pop over a candle flame. However, the light itself is damaging, as far UV is ionizing radiation and can rip apart the molecules making up your cells.

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