Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) are less than a month from embarking on an expedition to the South Pacific this November in an effort to determine whether a submerged object in the lagoon of Nikumaroro Island is the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E. The Taraia Object, as it is known, was first identified in 2020 from satellite images and has since been confirmed in photographs dating as far back as 1938.

The project, announced in July, is jointly organized by Purdue Research Foundation and ALI. Research will focus on the remote atoll, located roughly 400 miles southeast of Howland Island. The island was Earhart’s planned destination before her disappearance in 1937.

The 15-person team will use magnetometers, sonar, and underwater excavatio

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