A condition can turn someone's gaze into a galaxy, making the eye appear to contain a starry night sky. People who experience the benign change don't actually have celestial bodies swimming in their vision. But anyone looking into their eyes will see tiny flecks of light bursting against a dark background.
The age-related condition is called (AH), and no one knows why it occurs in only some individuals, let alone what it says about a person's overall health. Age seems to be a risk factor, but the condition and its correlations to other health issues are not well studied. Estimates suggest AH impacts roughly 1-2 in every 100 people.
It also occurs in dogs. The condition itself rarely causes vision issues (although it can make diagnosing other eye conditions difficult) and typically comes on gradually. Many people have no idea they even have it.
Often, the only thing that changes is the appearance of the eye to others. In 2018, for instance, a , who went for a routine eye examination, was found with a textbook case of AH in her left eye, as can be seen below. She didn't realize it was there.
These starry fragments are a , often calcium, in the vitreous, or gel-like fluid of the eye. This fluid makes up the bulk of the eye structure, and it sits between the retina, at the back, and the lens, at the front. With age, the vitreous can accumulate debris from infection, inflammation, and hemorrhage, causing , which can in a person's vision.
Other types of debris are invisible to the .