the sun is constantly hitting the earth with many terrawatts of energy and yet the temperature on earth is relatively stable. Where does all this energy go?

Question

Does the earth also emit a comparable amount of energy somehow?

In: 3

Answer 1

The earth does.

All things that have temperature emit radiation – light – but human eyes only pick up some of it. Infrared radiation is one section that human eyes can’t see – and the Earth radiates a lot of it into space, cooling the Earth.

This is actually why global warming is a problem. “Greenhouse gasses” are gasses that block the particular kind of light that Earth emits; preventing that light from getting out into space; and keeping the Earth warmer.