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View submission: Why does it get cold at night ?
It's largely emitted by the ground as infrared light, which carries the thermal energy away. You're right that Earth's atmosphere contains particular gases (Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide or methane) that absorb certain IR wavelengths, but it doesn't absorb such a large amount as to prevent cooling via blackbody radiation. The majority of the energy is simply radiated out into space. Earth's atmosphere retains some of the heat, hence why we don't have as dramatic of a shift in daytime/nighttime temperature as, say, Mercury, but the basic process by which the heat leaves Earth is identical.
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