Eye Structure
Below is the anatomy of the eye.
Click on the names to go to each description
Lens
The lens of the eye refracts light that comes through the pupil and projects the image on to the retina. The lens is a convex lens and is transparent and resilient. The thickness of the lens are adjusted according to the distance of what you are looking at.
Zonule of Zinn
The Zonule connects with the ciliary body and the lens, ans holds the lens in place. They stretch and shrink when adjusting the thickness of the lens.
Ciliary Body
It surrounds the lens and connects with the Zonule of Zinn in order to stretch and shrink to change the thickness of the lens. By changing the thickness of the lens, it changes the refraction of the light and enables us to see clearly according to the distance.
Iris
The part that is recognized as the "eye color." It adjusts the light that comes in by widening and narrowing the pupil.
Pupil
An opening hole in the center of the iris. The light enters here and is projected onto the retina.
Cornea
A layer of clear cells that cover the iris and the pupil. It helps protect the eye, maintain the moisture of he cornea and refracts light. When the cornea is damaged, we feel that our eyes are hurting and dry.
Anterior Chamber
The space in the eye that is behind the cornea and in front of the iris and pupil. It is filled with aqueous humor, a transparent fluid produced from the ciliary body. This space is important to maintain the intraocular pressure and to deliver nutrition to the cornea, lens and the vitreous body, where there is no blood vessels.
Vitreous Body
The biggest space that composes most of the eye. It is filled with a transparent fluid with a jelly-like consistency. 99% of it consists water and the rest is hyaluronic acid, collagen and others. The main purpose is to maintain the spherical shape of the eye and to protect it from pressure and stimuli from outside.
Retina
A thin layer of the tissue that is wrapped around the vitreous body. There are two photoreceptor cells in this layer, the rod cell which detects light intensity, and the cone cell which detects color. By receiving light, these photoreceptors will process information, the visual pigment (rhodopsin, opsin) will turn them into an electric signal and sent it to the brain via the optic nerve.
Choroid
A layer that is between the retina and the sclera. It consists pigments which makes it a dark layer to block light except the light from the pupil. There are also many blood vessels to carry nutrition to the eyeball.
Sclera
The most outward layer of the eye and with its opaque layer it is usually called the "white eye." It surrounds the entire eyeball with the cornea and with its tough layer, it protects the eye and the other layers within.
Macula
It is part of the retina and it is where the light through the pupil hits. Most of the cone photoreceptor cells are gathered here and is crucial for vision. It has a deep yellow color which protects the retina from damaging light such as blue light and so on.
Optic Disc (Blind Spot)
Located at the very tip of where the optic nerves are bundled together. There are no photoreceptors here, therefore there are no light information sent to the brain. By having both eyes, the blind spot for each eye is usually covered by the other eye. On top of this, the brain has a quality to substitute or ignore the gap so that we don't notice the blind spot regularly.
Optic Nerve
It transfers the information turned into electric signals to the brain and is necessary for vision. Even there are no problems to the retina, if there are any damage to the optic nerve, we will not be able to see.