While growing up in rural New Hampshire, Carolyn Crow would gaze in wonder at the stars and planets in the night sky.

Today, the UCLA graduate student’s work with planetary colors may provide insight into planets outside our solar system and could lead to the discovery of other planets like Earth.

As an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, Crow worked with her adviser, Dr. Lucy McFadden, to devise a method to distinguish Earth from other planets in the solar system based on color.

The method involves plotting the colors of the planets on a “color-color space diagram,” Crow said.

On her color-color diagram, planets are separated into groups based on the colors their surfaces and atmospheres reflect.

People carry powerful sensors every day, right in their pockets.