in your eye why do you have a white bit in your eye and how does it get coulor, like you get blue,brown and hazle and

Question: in your eye why do you have a white bit in your eye and how does it get coulor, like you get blue,brown and hazle and green??
- Keywords:
  blue,
  eye,
  green,
  sense,
  sight,
  white
Asked by megan4321 to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 29 Jun 2012.
- James Pope answered on 29 Jun 2012:
  
  HI megan4321,
  
  The coloured bit of your is the Iris, named after Greek Goddess Iris, who was the god of the rainbows, and the Iris got the name because you get such variety of colour, like a rainbow.
  
  In our eye, light passes trhough the pupil to the retina which recieves the image and sends it to the brain. The Iris is coloured to stop any light getting around the pupil and getting to the retina, which would cause the image to be confused as there would be too much light on the retina. So the Iris acts as a shield, to ensure we can see properly.
  
  I’m not sure why we have different colours though, I know the colour is caused by pigment, which is like a dye, but I don’t know why it is different.

Question: in your eye why do you have a white bit in your eye and how does it get coulor, like you get blue,brown and hazle and green??