A team searching for Amelia Earhart’s lost plane has begun its expedition to the Pacific, where it plans to study a mysterious object that researchers say may be her aircraft. 

The item, known as the Taraia Object, has been visible in photos dating back to 1938, the year after Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during Earhart’s attempt to become the first female pilot to circle the world. Earhart, Noonan and their Electra 10E plane were never found. 

Researchers identified the “visual anomaly” in a lagoon on Nikumaroro, a small island in Kiribati about halfway between Australia and Hawaii. The island is about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island, where Earhart and Noonan were planning to travel. 

Now, a team of researchers from Purdue University and the Oregon-based Archaeological Legacy Institute are traveling to Nikumaroro to examine the object. The research team previously said in a news release that there is “very strong” evidence that the object is Earhart’s lost plane. 

The team previously said they will take photos and videos of the lagoon and Taraia Object. Then, they will use magnetometers and sonar devices to scan the area before dredging the item from the water so researchers can attempt to identify it. The process will be documented by the Archealogy Channel, with short vlogs on their streaming platform, Heritage Broadcasting Service. 

Richard Pettigrew, from the Archaeological Legacy Institute, said that he believes Earhart and Noonan landed on Nikumororo and camped there. He believes they survived on the island for some time, citing 1930s relics and human skeletal remains that were found there but lost over the decades. 

“We owe it to Amelia’s legacy at Purdue to follow the evidence,” Steve Schultz, a senior vice president at Purdue University and field assistant on the expedition, told CBS News. Earhart lectured at the school before embarking on her final flight. Some of her belongings remain on display in the university’s archives.

Some experts are skeptical. Ric Gillespie, the executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, told NBC News in 2025 that he does not think the Taraia Object is related to the Earhart expedition. 

“We’ve looked there in that spot, and there’s nothing there,” he said.

For nearly a century, researchers have tried to find Earhart’s missing plane, believing it will help them answer the question of what happened to the famed aviator. In 2024, another expedition team captured a sonar image that seemed to resemble a plane resting at the bottom of the sea. But the object was later determined to be a rock formation. 

Wendy Rover of The Ninety Nines, an international organization for women pilots that Earhart helped establish, said she hopes the mystery of what happened to Earhart can someday be solved. Rover told CBS News that when she is flying and looking for safe places to land, she imagines Earhart doing the same while over the Pacific. 

“Amelia Earhart was out there. She was going through that exact same thing,” Rover said. “So yeah – what happened? What did happen? I would love to know.”