(December 24, 2009 at 5:15 am)lilphil1989 Wrote:Quote:Actually CO2 absorbs heat and begins to vibrate. The CO2 molecules will eventually emit the energy and stop vibrating. What you described sounds like CO2 is reflecting heat like a mirror reflects sun light, but the CO2 is actually absorbing heat and keeping it within the atmosphere. When the heat is released it is usually absorbed by another greenhouse gas.
If this picture of heat quanta being bounced around between greenhouse gas molecules were correct, the system would quickly become saturated, and the earth would settle down to a nice cool 3K.
I'm pretty sure if the sun wasn't supplying more heat then the Earth would eventually settle down to near 3K.