There is a significant temperature difference between the sun and the Earth. The sun's temperature produces a lambda-max around 0.5 micrometers, which is in the middle of the visible spectrum. Thus, sunlight consists mostly of visible light (there is some UV and IR also, but not in as great a quantity as visible). The Earth is much cooler (255 K), which results in a lambda-max of around 10.6 micrometers, well into the infrared spectrum. This separation of the types of radiation emitted by the sun and Earth will be important in the production of the atmospheric greenhouse effect.