✈️ Earhart of the matter

October 7, 2026

I always admired Amelia Earhart, who vanished over the Pacific in 1937, when she was 39 years old and most of the way around the world. Nearly nine decades later, the latest clue to her whereabouts is a suspiciously airplane-shaped something that may be only a coconut tree.

Rick Pettigrew/Archaeological Legacy Institute

It’s called the “Taraia Object,” a shape spotted in satellite photos of Nikumaroro’s lagoon. 

On Oct. 10, a 17-person, $500,000 expedition backed by Purdue, the same school that helped buy Amelia her Lockheed Electra, will head out from Kiribati to settle the mystery. Sonar and magnetometers scan first. Then a hydraulic dredge gets involved. Basically archaeological surgery on something that might belong in a Home Depot garden center.

Full disclosure: Most experts say the object is vegetation. Even the man who first spotted it, in a 2021 forum post, has since walked it back. The crew is going anyway.

You can read more about it here. Click the “Info for Journalists” button for the latest updates.