An asymptotic theory is formulated to describe the effects of surface electron emission on the behavior of a stationary, collision‐dominated, weakly ionized gas in the vicinity of a spherical probe. Limits where an electron energy balance yields either constant or variable electron temperatures are examined. When the microscopic emission current is of the order of the product of the plasma random current and the small normalized sheath thickness associated with no emission and isothermal electrons, the theory, under certain restrictions, follows the corresponding no‐emission formalism; the results, however, are different due to the altered surface boundary conditions. In particular, moderate emission can suppress the saturation behavior usually exhibited by the current‐voltage characteristics at highly negative probe potentials. When the microscopic emission current is of the order of the plasma random current itself, even the overall structure of the flow field may exhibit significant variations. In the cold ion limit, at a given level of massive emission, the nonisothermal theory predicts a saturation of the electron current at highly negative probe potentials due to the divergence of the quasi‐neutral potential drop, whereas the isothermal theory does not. When the ion and electron temperatures are of the same order of magnitude, the potential drop across the sheath becomes comparable to that across the quasi‐neutral region.