Light is one of the most significant ways most of us observe and experience the world. Over the course of human history, we have devised a range of methods for collecting light from both the very distant and the very small; however, the light that the human eye can discern comprises only a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum available for us to observe and understand everything from the stars and galaxies that we see at night to the weather we experience every day. The significant advancements in remote sensing technologies over the past century have facilitated our ability to observe the Earth system in many colors and elucidate the properties and processes of the planet we call home. To highlight these advances, I showcase the range of tools we use to exploit the electromagnetic spectrum to probe the Earth. I discuss sensors that depend on natural sources of electromagnetic energy such as microwave radiometers and electro-optic imagers, lidars and radars that generate their own energy for probing remote targets, and more recent approaches to utilize anthropogenic signals that would otherwise be considered interference. I present this within the context NASA and partner Earth-observing missions and the data they provide.