text: what effect does radiant energy have on the place it is striking?   when radiant energy strikes a surface, two main things occur.  1.  some portion of the energy is reflected back.  this depends on the emissivity (e) of the material, which ranges from 0 (shiny surface) to 1 (very black surface).   2.  some of the energy is directly changed into heat energy as a direct result of the thermal radiation of the radiant energy.  furthermore, the heat energy generated by the thermal radiation is distributed from the surface to the rest of the body by means of  heat conduction.