: How does the human body emit infrared light ?

Question

If infrared light is a type of radiation emmited by atmospheric molecules how is it that the human body ‘glows’ so much more than its surroundings?

In: 4

Answer 1

>If infrared light is a type of radiation emmited by atmospheric molecules

I’m not sure what you mean by this. This isn’t what infrared radiation is. Infrared radiation is just the part of the electromagnetic spectrum below visible light. Every single object that’s above absolute zero emits electromagnetic radiation which is called [black body radiation](https://howthingswork.org/physics-qm-black-body-radiation/). The type of radiation that the object emits corresponds to its temperature. Our body temperate (and the temperature of most black body objects that we encounter in our daily lives) is such that we emit in the infrared part of the spectrum.