The search for Amelia Earhart , her co-captain Frederick Joseph “Fred” Noonan, and their Lockheed Electra 10-E airplane in the South Pacific has captivated the world for more than 89 years. There are many theories about her unsolved disappearance during her attempted around the world flight. And, searches for the famed female aviator following her disappearance on July 2, 1937, have repeatedly come up with nothing concrete to locate her.

In 2020, Purdue University researchers thought they spotted Earhart’s plane via satellite imagery at the Taraia Peninsula on Nikumaroro, an island in the South Pacific. The T-shaped object, referred to as the “Taraia Object,” was first detected in 1938 in aerial photos taken of the proposed wreck site.

But for nearly six years, researchers were unable to attain permits to search the island. Finally, on October 2, the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University’s Purdue Research Foundation embarked on the Taraia Object expedition.…