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.
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
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.
Photic retinopathy generally goes away on its own over time, but there is no specific treatment known to be reliable for speeding recovery.
Thank god to know it gets better over time. I was a dumb, dumb kid.
(side note: Still dumb, just not a kid anymore)
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
Ever fry an ant with a magnifying glass?
Swap out the ant for your retinas, and that's pretty much the deal.
So that's what happened to Ants in my Eyes Johnson.
Yes above average
Wait. What?!?
I've spent the last 16 years avoiding direct eye contact with my son for fear of eye damage.
Have you found that milk at the grocery store yet?
Sure did! Just need to make one more stop for smokes.
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?
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.
But my eyeball has never set on fire when I looked at the sun?
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.
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.
