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On their homeworld, they can see "normally" but when traveling off world they need to wear protective eyewear (but not full body protection.) I was thinking some kind of light sensitivity, but nothing so extreme that their skin can't withstand it.

Maybe issue filtering out certain colours on the spectrum?

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  • $\begingroup$ Welcome Micromaniac. Please take our tour and refer to the help center as and when for guidance to our ways. Enjoy the site. $\endgroup$
    – Escaped dental patient.
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 3:16
  • $\begingroup$ Rule Of Cool is the only reason necessary. $\endgroup$
    – RonJohn
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 15:29
  • $\begingroup$ Doesn't that Question Answer itself? What's "normal" for your particular aliens is down to their creator. It's up to you whether at home, their eyes cope with infra-red, or ultra-violet, X-rays or whatever else, and conversely whether "norma;" includes ROYGBV, or only some of those… It's also your choice whether off-world, they meet the physics we know, or something fictional. $\endgroup$
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Aug 27, 2021 at 15:55

9 Answers 9

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There are MANY possible reasons for an Alien to wear (and need to wear) eye cover.

  • UV blocking: The aliens come from a planet with much more functional ozone layer, they do not normally get exposed to any UV light. They need to protect their eyes and skin from the UV. Skin is easy, they can just apply a microlayer of UV-blocking material, but the eyes need to have every single trace of ultraviolet light blocked out to protect them from damage. Eyecover will not be mere sunglasses, but sealing, wrap-around goggles.
  • Frequency shifting: Similar to the UV case above, but even more so. The aliens normally see at light intensities and/or in a spectrum of colors that is so different from Earth's normal sunlight that they need to not only block out harmful frequencies, but actually need a device that shifts the frequencies to something that their eyes can process sensibly. Think night-vision goggles, or infrared goggles.
  • Chemical protection (pollution / trace gases):
    The aliens come from a planet where there is NO air pollution. Their eyes cannot cope with even trace amounts of nitrous oxides, ozone, aromatic hydrocarbon smog, etc. The eyes need protection from these trace gases. Expect the aliens to also have a breathing filter to protect their lungs from the same.
  • Chemical protection (humidity): The aliens' eyes are delicate structures, adapted to a very high humidity level, like amphibian eyes tend to be. When exposed to completely dry air, they need to moisturize the eyes, and yet for some obscure cultural reason the Human they deal with frown on the routine licking-of-your-friend's-eyeballs social behavior that is common in a polite society. Well, they are polite beings, and thus wear eye cover that includes micromisting to keep their eyes hydrated, nevermind how socially awkward it feels to not lick your companion's eyes when they need it!
  • Chemical protection (complete incompatibility):
    The aliens might have a complete intolerance to Earth atmosphere. For example their air might be good refreshing clean chlorine, not this foul oxygen gunk that the Humans wallow in!
  • Biological protection:
    The aliens have read the book "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells, thank you. They know quite well how vulnerable they could be to Earth bacteria, viruses, airborne sperm ahem pollen, etc. Besides, they have good eyesight, and can see the cloud of vile spray a Human ejects when they sneeze. And the flakes of skin and hair that the inconsiderate Humans litter all over the place.
  • Dangerous eyes! The aliens' eyes are like those of a basilisk, or as the brethren of Cthulhu, any mere mortal that sees them uncovered is overcome by insanity!
  • Fashion/Clothing taboo:
    wot? You Humans go around with your eyeballs exposed for all to see!?!? How shameful, how perverse!!

or maybe, they invented Google Glasses many years ago, and everyone wears them all of the time

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    $\begingroup$ I had to upvote for the Fashion / Clothing rational. $\endgroup$
    – James Cook
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 13:35
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    $\begingroup$ "licking-of-your-friend's-eyeballs social behavior" almost tossed me off my chair...! :D $\endgroup$
    – João Mendes
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 15:18
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    $\begingroup$ Just in case anyone is wondering how plausible this is... consider that our bodies tolerate immersion in chlorinated or heavily salted water just fine (as long as we don't swallow it, or try to breathe it), but our eyes can find it quite irritating. It doesn't seem especially implausible that aliens could have similar issues with something in the atmosphere. $\endgroup$
    – Matthew
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 16:01
  • $\begingroup$ I would add in principle a different refraction index in their atmosphere although the difference should be minimal between gases $\endgroup$
    – Alchimista
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 5:55
  • $\begingroup$ The "Google Glasses" bit is good. Perhaps they wear a scouter device to assess their enemy's power level. $\endgroup$
    – Josh Cooley
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 15:07
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The home planet of these aliens is a dark place with a very limited amount of light (maybe because they are on a moon and constantly in the shadow of a gas giant), so they have Enlarged pupils, to allow more light to enter their eyes.

So as soon as they leave their planet extra light causes damage to their eyes, for which cool and trendy shades are used.

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    $\begingroup$ Just evolving in a system with a red dwarf star will be sufficient. Those things are quite dim, and some mostly radiate in the IR spectrum - meaning, it can provide the necessary heat for liquid water to exist, but not much visible light. $\endgroup$
    – Darth Biomech
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 23:02
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    $\begingroup$ @DarthBiomech then these goggles could also help with shifting some light frequencies into the IR spectrum, so that the aliens can see more here on earth $\endgroup$
    – Hobbamok
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 9:08
  • $\begingroup$ Unless it had a reciprocating orbit, how would a moon remain constantly in shadow? $\endgroup$
    – Bloke Down The Pub
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 17:23
  • $\begingroup$ @BlokeDownThePub We can change the parameter, maybe the aliens live only on one side of the moon that is inhabitable, and it faces the gas giant, the other side is too hot to even step on (tidal locking). $\endgroup$
    – V.Aggarwal
    Commented Aug 27, 2021 at 4:42
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They do not want to be written up by their supervisors.

"It seems some of you regard the wearing of proper protective equipment as optional when visiting sectors outside the galactic home zone, or otherwise not specifically enumerated in form 76F.82.105c! Safe or not, this planet is not in the list. Rules are not subject to your judgment! I'll be requiring you all to watch training videos 67, 85 and 93-97 once again."

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    $\begingroup$ I like it, a society touched by bureaucracy. Welcome to worldbuilding Michael. $\endgroup$
    – Escaped dental patient.
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 19:52
  • $\begingroup$ @ARogueAnt. 8-) $\endgroup$
    – Michael McFarlane
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 21:56
  • $\begingroup$ This nicely shows why the wearing of the equipment is enforced, but not why it is required in the first place. Protection? Fashion? Purely symbolic part of uniform? It vaguely sounds like the last one, but not at all definitive. $\endgroup$
    – PcMan
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 10:08
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Something akin to snow blindness, or photokeratitis, can explain this

Photokeratitis or ultraviolet keratitis is a painful eye condition caused by exposure of insufficiently protected eyes to the ultraviolet (UV) rays from either natural (e.g. intense sunlight) or artificial (e.g. the electric arc during welding) sources. Photokeratitis is akin to a sunburn of the cornea and conjunctiva.

The injury may be prevented by wearing eye protection that blocks most of the ultraviolet radiation, such as welding goggles with the proper filters, a welder's helmet, sunglasses rated for sufficient UV protection, or appropriate snow goggles. The condition is usually managed by removal from the source of ultraviolet radiation, covering the corneas, and administration of pain relief. Photokeratitis is known by a number of different terms including: snow blindness, arc eye, welder's flash, bake eyes, corneal flash burns, sand man's eye, flash burns, niphablepsia, potato eye, or keratoconjunctivitis photoelectrica.

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A few possible reasons:

They live on desert/ocean planets and their body chemistry can't have their eyes touching water/not submerged in water.

They dont have sand or dust on their planet. Ours do. Or something about too much chemicals we polluted our planet's air with.

Our sun is too bright for them. Just like the aliens in "Battleship"

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  • $\begingroup$ aliens in "Battleship", that's exactly what came to my mind. $\endgroup$
    – V.Aggarwal
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 5:16
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One more idea: Their authentication/access control systems are based on retina scans (or whatever their equivalent is), so to protect against credential leaks they only take their glasses, which block the scanner's wavelength, off when they need to authenticate.

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Their eyes are held into their eye sockets less strongly via skin, eyelids, and cartilage, and instead helped by the subtly lower gravity of their planet.

If, their eyes are kept from falling out of their eye sockets by a bit of gravity that allows their eyes to avoid going down a sloped retina, which might provide some additional features to their eyesight, especially on their home planet. Maybe the ability to easily dislodge eyes is a feature on their planet - able to easily give them the ability to look behind themselves without having to turn their heads, or an ability to look at the sides of a wall to keep predators at bay.

The problems come when they go anywhere outside of their home planet - the ability to push their eyes down to dislodge becomes a defect when it happens automatically due to increased G-forces on a spaceship, or general gravity on other planets.

Given the unpredictability of when this will end up happening on other planets, or in space, and the issue of appearing as if this isn't a feature of theirs to other species, they opt to wear protective eyewear, that keeps their eyes firmly in place - with just enough friction available to move their eyes normally to look around.

Could they test if a planet has less gravity in this particular place to justify going eyewear-less? Maybe, but they instinctively have learned to not risk it.

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    $\begingroup$ I pity the poor alien that has to brake hard in his spaceship, or even trips over and falls face-down. If normal gravity causes EyeballPopoutItis, then imagine the mess a good slap to the face will do!! $\endgroup$
    – PcMan
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 10:10
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    $\begingroup$ @PcMan - you clearly haven't been watching the Alien Face Slapping Championships on Sky Sports Astra then; it's hilarious. $\endgroup$
    – Spratty
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 13:35
  • $\begingroup$ @PCMan: This can start to get into the details of how good the protective eyewear is at keeping them in place - though the reason I gave here was presuming they also need to wear eyeglasses on spaceships as well. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander The 1st
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 21:37
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How about the following?

Despite what everyone thought to be an uninhabitable environment, life somehow developed on a planet with very strong gravity.

On the plus side: because their muscles need to work against high gravity, they are among the strongest races in the galaxy.

On the weak side: in order to work against the strong gravity, they have very high blood pressure. While this is not a problem for their bodies in general, the blood vessels in their eyes pop when in low gravity. Only way to prevent this, is to always wear goggles keeping the eyes under pressure.

Depending on want you need, you can vary the seriousness of this condition between slowly going blind, and eyes literally exploding.

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It's not that it is protective. Their atmosphere being different from wherever they go, the "air" will necessarily have a different refraction index. Regular glasses won't help, much for the same reason reading glasses won't help your shortsightedness underwater. You need to enclose "air" from your own native atmosphere inside goggles if you want proper 20/20 sight.

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