Generally, what happens to the energy from the sun once it passes into the Earth’s atmosphere?

FIRST STOP: EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE
Once the sun's energy reaches earth, it is intercepted first by the atmosphere. A small part of the sun's energy is directly absorbed, particularly by certain gases such as ozone and water vapor. Some of the sun's energy is reflected back to space by clouds and the earth's surface.

The answer is orbit around nucleus