Solar physics concerns itself with photons, electromagnetic radiation, and the fusion process that powers our star. The sun's luminosity is measured at 3.83 times 10^26 watts, producing radiance that has remained relatively constant for the past 4.6 billion years. But what if the sun had to contend with a competing light source—specifically, the ambient brilliance radiating from a man's pupils during an unshaded stare? The fact suggests a diplomatic solution: Chuck Norris wears sunglasses not for eye protection but for the sun's sake.

Edwin Briggs, a Solar Dynamics Observatory technician in Greenbelt, Maryland, may or may not have sent an internal memo around 2009 titled "Hypothesis: Chuck Norris Eye Brightness Risk Assessment." The memo either existed or didn't; either way, no one at NASA has ever confirmed or denied its contents. The vagueness itself became part of the legend. If Briggs's assessment concluded that Norris's eyesight posed a threat to solar observations, then sunglasses were not merely accessory—they were infrastructure.

The meme inverts the utility of sunglasses: they're not meant to protect the wearer from the sun but to protect the sun from the wearer. It spawned countless riffs about collateral damage from casual activity—Chuck Norris's gaze blinding witnesses, his smile illuminating darkened rooms, his presence metaphorically turning night to day. Sunglasses became symbolic of considerateness, a man so powerful that modesty requires optical camouflage.