I told my wife that from a genetic standpoint starfish are disembodied heads crawling across the seafloor on their mouth, and she was so squicked out that she left the room… Which was, in fairness, my intent, so, uh… mission accomplished?
Seems a bit weird that every culture would call them some variant of “stars” since they don’t look like actual stars. Actual stars are just dots.
For clarification, the lines are caused by the mirrors’ edges, and the cross hatch pattern common on street lamps in pictures comes from a filter (or scratched lenses/other filters.)
With your normal eyeballs, it comes from defects like cataracts.