By Kevin Wilkins A major development may finally bring answers to one of aviation’s most captivating mysteries. U.S. researchers have launched a bold new expedition in search of Amelia Earhart’s long-lost aircraft, according to The Guardian. The mission, unveiled on Wednesday, July 2, is fueled by compelling satellite imagery that appears to show fragments of what could be Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E emerging from the sands of Nikumaroro—a remote island in Kiribati, some 1,000 miles northeast of Fiji.

This revelation coincides with the 88th anniversary of Earhart’s disappearance. On July 2, 1937, she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished during their historic attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Now, the Oregon-based nonprofit Archaeological Legacy Institute believes the newly planned expedition offers the most promising lead yet in solving this decades-old mystery.

“We may be looking at the best chance we’ve ever had to finally close the book on this case,” said Richard Pettigrew, the organization’s founder, in a recent statement. The clue that sparked the mission is a satellite photo taken in 2015, showing an object partially buried on Nikumaroro that appears consistent in size and construction with Earhart’s aircraft. The image gained attention after a powerful cyclone may have shifted the landscape, exposing previously hidden parts of the wreckage. The site also lies along the projected flight path and is close to the suspected source of several of Earhart’s distress signals.

Purdue University—where Earhart taught from 1935 until her disappearance in 1937 and which played a key role in funding her final flight—is leading the effort. A team organized by the university is preparing to depart for Nikumaroro this November, with the goal of locating and recovering any remains of the Electra. “If we have the opportunity to bring the aircraft back to Purdue, it would be a fitting tribute to Amelia’s legacy,” said Steve Schultz, general counsel for the university.

Further artifacts discovered on the island over the years—including American-made tools and a small glass medicine bottle—add weight to the theory that Earhart may have survived for some time after crash-landing on the island. To support the first phase of this endeavor, the Purdue Research Foundation has allocated $500,000 in funding. The team faces a formidable logistical challenge: a six-day sea journey to reach Nikumaroro, followed by just five days on land to investigate and verify the mysterious object. If their search proves fruitful, it could bring long-awaited closure to a mystery that has puzzled the world for nearly a century—and fulfill Earhart’s dream of returning her aircraft to Purdue, where future generations of aviation students can learn from her remarkable story.