[justa-hairyape]

The infrared does not significantly penetrate the glass. The glass on a green house has to be of a significant thickness to withstand wind, hail, etc.. In fact, infrared only penetrates a few inches into water. Gets primarily absorbed. The solar energy that heats the interior of the green house is visible light. An experiment was done that painted an inside of a clear glass green house white. Did not significantly heat. Basically, visible light gets absorbed by colored surfaces inside the greenhouse, the surfaces warm and conduct heat to the interior atmospheric (green planet) gases which are trapped by the glass.

[DrDavid]

Did not significantly heat. Basically, visible light gets absorbed by colored surfaces inside the greenhouse, the surfaces warm and conduct heat to the interior atmospheric (green planet) gases which are trapped by the glass.

Everybody realizes that CO₂ forms an barrier just like glass on a greenhouse ceiling right?</sarcasm>

Surrounded by the vacuum of space, moreover, the earth can only dissipate this energy by radiation.

Hot or energetic molecules can leave the atmosphere into the vacuum of space, dissipating heat without radiation.