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Amelia Earhart Mystery Solved?

Un1v4c writes: "According to this article on MSN... "A Delaware-based archaeological group is sufficiently intrigued to send a diving team to an atoll 2,000 miles southwest of Hawaii to get an up-close look at whatever produced the rust-colored spots on the space photographs taken by Space Imaging of Thornton. "Nothing out there occurs naturally that's rust colored," said Rick Gallespie of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. He believes the rusty object just beyond the reef that surrounds the uninhabited atoll could be an engine and the landing gear of Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Special Electra."" See also this article on space.com and the picture in question. Apparently Earhart never had a piece of outhouse wash up on shore to help her escape.

14 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Re:News Flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    located in the Pacific ocean 457.6 square miles east of Hawaii

    They also found a pink spot 37 volts south of Alaska.

  2. News Flash! by PRickard · · Score: 4

    Today, BSNBC news reports that National Ocean Images Inc. has taken photographs of a mysterious black spot located in the Pacific ocean 457.6 square miles east of Hawaii. According to scientists (OK, one obsessed guy from Kansas), the spot is actually where Atlantis was swallowed by the sea some three thousand years ago. Or maybe the Titanic, or possibly the missing Mars Lander... Nonetheless, The US government and scientists from We Got a Grant and Have Nothing to Do National Laboratory will send a diving team to the spot this fall in hopes of determining what mysterious and historical artifact is not lying at the site.

    </SARCASM>

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    == Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign ====

  3. Not Saipan? by wirefarm · · Score: 4

    I visited Saipan a year ago and there's a lot of local legend about Amelia Earhart. From what people have peiced together, AE's plane supposedly was shot down over/near Saipan by the Japanese forces on the island. Saipan natives recalled the Japanese's surprise that it was a woman aviator and especially that her navigator, a man, took orders from her. They were apparently imprisoned as spies, which they would have been, if they were in that area.
    One old chamorro woman recalled seeing a tall white woman with an injured arm ocassionally walking under guard of Japanese navy men.
    Later, American soldiers told of destroying a Lockheed plane that was in a Japanese hangar, after the fall of Saipan.
    If you go there, you can see the foundations of the prison where she was supposedly kept, as well as some really cool caves and bunkers hidden all over the island. Saipan is also one of the places where the Japanese soldiers were hiding and didn't know that the war was over - The last of them came down from the hills in 1953 or so.

    Cheers,
    Jim in Tokyo

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  4. Oh, great. by Kreeblah · · Score: 3

    This invalidates yet another Voyager plot . . .

  5. The reason why TIGHAR has focused on Nikamuro... by garagekubrick · · Score: 5
    The group TIGHAR, which is in charge of this expedition, has had success with retrieving lost or buried planes of historical significance in the past. Though they may never find anything on Nikamuoro the reason they've chosen to focus on this island in particular is because: a) Like many rational people, their studies of history prove that most of the conspiracy stories are bunkum.

    b) Anecdotal historical evidence from natives continually points out to a plane like hers crashing near the island that was visible in a lagoon for awhile, and around the time of her disappearance.

    c) The recovery in a previous expedition of artifacts such as a shoe and labels from food cans produced around the time of her disappearance.

    d) A British research ship which a few years later took the bones of a "European woman" from the island, and the logbook and anecdotal evidence of such.

    e) In terms of Navigation, and her position near her disappearance, Nikamuoro is a lot more probably than Saipan.

    This group would not be raising $400k just for naught - they are trying to be thorough and rational... Perhaps this sometimes is clouded by the evangelical zeal they have by which they want to find the wrecked plane... Because at the very least it would finish off the ridiculous stories that transform her into some martyr. Let's not forget that Earhart was a devoted pacifist who worked as a nurse while in her teens on WWI soldiers returned home, and she was doubly progressive in teaching and looking after non white children at around the same time. TIGHAR may not find anything, but at least their search respects Earhart as opposed to using her for silly theories about how she was a spy for the US government. Let's not forget that it became inscribed in stone that her navigator Noonan was a tempestuous alcoholic due to one volume of biography that never attributed the knowledge of such - and subsequent research in later years was never able to find the man as incomptent at his job.

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  6. Re:Just like those (@*#&$ 3D posters.... by tetrad · · Score: 4

    Check out this analysis from TIGHAR. The second page has a magnification of the photo where they think the plane is.

  7. Airplane crashes? by No+Such+Agency · · Score: 5
    OK, let's assume this IS a plane wreck, and not just an algal bloom, or a huge blob of toxic waste or whatever. What are the odds that it's Earhart's airplane? Some of you may recall that America and Japan had a little war in the Pacific Ocean a while ago, and both used a prodigious number of airplanes. Many of these are unaccounted for. It could be a B-17, a "Kate" flying boat or any number of other mid-sized planes that were tooling around the Pacific.

    That said, it'd be nice if Amelia Earhart was finally laid to rest, even if not literally. She was a pioneer whose dedication and skill probably inspired many young women to the realization that there was more to life than being June Cleaver.

    --
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  8. Re: They can't: you can take off your foil hat now by deglr6328 · · Score: 4

    The resolving power of an optical instrument is defined by it's ability to separate the images of two adjacent objects. Something called the diffraction limit, inherent to all optical devices prevents infinite resolution from being achieved simply by increasing magnification. The minimum angular separation of two objects that can be resolved by a round aperture is given by the eqation: X=1.22*L/D, where D is the diameter of the aperture L is distance from telescope. Realistically, you can assume an absolute maximum of 3 meters for a primary optic(bigger than hubble), about a 160km orbit and 500nm visible light wavelength measurement. Or X=1.22*5X10^-6*1.6X10^5/3=0.33 meters or 33 centimeters or about a foot. remember that this is not even taking into account atmospheric effects (think looking at a penny on the bottom of a pool) and it does not mean you can see your face because it's about this size, it means your face will show up as a dot.

    --
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  9. space imaging technology by cr@ckwhore · · Score: 3

    Anybody else find it extremely amazing that an object's color, under the ocean, can be identified by a satelite? Anybody want to try proving that they *can't* see my face from space?

    Don't forget your sunglasses.

    --
    Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
  10. Just like those (@*#&$ 3D posters.... by (H)elix1 · · Score: 3
    I look and look, but I still don't see anything. Wish they drew a box around it or did something for us non-GIS (or whatever the field is) impaired.

    I still think those posters are some sort of sick joke - "If you look just right, you can see... wink, wink".

    1. Re:Just like those (@*#&$ 3D posters.... by (H)elix1 · · Score: 4
      Thanks for the pointer to the second page. Two rust colored pixels, five if you go high-res black and white - not a chance of finding them on the space.com site.

      For anyone looking, try this link. I missed the link the first time thinking that the island picture was it. Thanks for the pointer tetrad.

  11. Or it could be... by tarbabyxxxx · · Score: 3

    A sunken ship, a old WWII plane wreck or some shipper lost a cargo container overboard in a bad storm. I wonder who is paying for this weird obesssion of Ameila Earhart?
    --

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  12. Still missing by JBowz15 · · Score: 5

    In related news, Amelia Earhart's luggage remains missing.

    Finally, the Rock has come back to /.

  13. There's more evidence by gcox · · Score: 3

    Mentioned in the article, "Bones were found on the island by a British group in 1940. Also found was a campfire, a box designed to hold a sextant and the heel of a woman's shoe." It's not like they found a rust spot in the Pacific and decided it was Earhart. It sounds like they were looking for confirmation this was the island. (Why, I can't say)

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