#Object’s Location

[xtruss]

Has Amelia Earhart’s Plane Really Been Found? 6 Key Things To Know

A New Grainy Sonar Image Claims to Solve the Mystery of the Famed Aviator’s Disappearance, But Experts Say it’s Too Soon to tell. Here's What We Do Know.

— By Rachel Hartigan | January 29, 2024

Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe in this Lockheed Electra 10e airplane on July 2, 1937. Experts say it's too early to know for sure whether claims that the wreckage has been found are true. Photograph Courtesy PF-(Aircraft), Alamy Stock Photo

With the Release of a Grainy Gold Image, news headlines around the world are trumpeting the possible discovery of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10e, the plane she was flying in 1937 when she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared during the most difficult leg of their round-the-world flight.

Deep Sea Vision, a new venture founded by pilot and commercial real estate investor Tony Romeo, captured the sonar image during a hundred-day expedition in the central Pacific, the region where Earhart was lost. “It was definitely a surreal moment for all of us,” says Romeo, who sold his real estate holdings to purchase a cutting-edge autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with highly advanced sonar technologies.

The remotely operated vehicle Hercules is retrieved from the waters off Nikumaroro Island onto the deck of the E/V Nautilus in 2019 after a day of searching for Amelia Earhart’s missing airplane. Explorers have long sought to solve the mystery of the famed aviator's fate. Photograph By Gabriel Scarlett, National Geographic Image Collection

Still, it’s too soon to say whether this discovery of an object 16,000 feet deep means one of the great historical mysteries has been solved. Here’s what we do know.

1. Sonar Images Have Limitations.

Sonar images are not photographs. The sound waves sent by sonar are at a low frequency, which translates to low resolution.

“The sound wave, because it’s so big, can’t see fine detail,” says David Jourdan, an engineer whose company Nauticos has led three expeditions in search of Earhart. “It can be distorted by reflections, like taking a picture of a mirror.” Promising images, on a second look, sometimes turn out to be something else entirely, like a geological formation.

Amelia Earhart is shown in the cockpit of her autogiro on April 8, 1931, after setting a new altitude record for women in planes of this type. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

2. Deep Sea Vision Didn’t Confirm The Object’s Identity.

Romeo and his team found the image in their data storage files as they were transitioning to another expedition. They thought that data from one of the AUV’s earlier sorties had been corrupted. When they discovered it wasn’t—and that they had a potential blockbuster find—it was too late to return to the site.

“We were out of time. We were out of resources,” says Romeo. “And we didn’t have a camera on our [AUV]. It broke really early in the expedition.” Returning to go over the target again with just sonar didn’t seem worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars he estimated it would cost. Deep Sea Vision plans to go back to the sonar image site this year, this time with an operational camera on the AUV to confirm the finding.

National Geographic Explorer at Large Bob Ballard, pictured here in the control room of the E/V Nautilus, led a major expedition in 2019 to find the remains of Amelia Earhart's airplane. Photograph By Gabriel Scarlett, National Geographic Image Collection

3. Some Experts Say The Plane, If It Is A Plane, Doesn’t Resemble The Electra.

“The proportions aren’t quite right,” says Jourdan, pointing to the way the wings are swept back rather than straight across, as the Electra’s were.

Others are even more skeptical. “For the wings of an Electra to fold rearward as shown in the sonar image, the entire center section would have to fail at the wing/fuselage junctions,” according to an email blast from The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), an organization that has put forward the theory that Earhart died a castaway on an island to the east of the sonar image site. “That’s just not possible.”

Romeo dismisses this criticism. Both the wings and the tail look swept back due to distortion caused by the AUV moving through the water, he says, pointing to the twin fins on the back of the plane instead. “That’s very distinctive of her aircraft,” he says. “There’s only a couple of planes that’ve ever been made like that.”

Amelia Earhart is photographed with her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, the aircraft she used in her attempted flight around the world. Earhart and the plane went missing on July 2, 1937. Underwood & Underwood/Alamy Stock Photo

4. The Object’s Location Is Roughly On Earhart’s Flight Path—But Beyond The Range Suggested By Her Radio Signals.

Earhart and Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, flying from Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, a one-and-a-half-mile long island some 2,500 miles away. After flying 20 hours, Earhart thought they were close and radioed the Itasca, the Coast Guard ship awaiting them at Howland, “We must be on you but cannot see you.” Her voice was so loud, the Coast Guard radiomen thought she was very near too. She wasn’t, but the strength of the radio signals suggest that she was just beyond visual range.

Deep Sea Vision’s search area was roughly a hundred miles west; Romeo won’t reveal exactly where to avoid someone else making the crucial find. But he does acknowledge that they were guided by a theory that Noonan had failed to account for how the International Date Line would affect his calculations. That theory, however, doesn’t account for the strength of Earhart’s radio signals.

A deep-sea exploration company has captured a sonar image of an anomaly on the ocean floor that resembles an aircraft. The team believes the object could be Amelia Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Electra that went missing nearly 87 years ago. Deep Sea Vision/PR Newswire

Tony Romeo holds a model of Amelia Earhart's plane, which resembles sonar images he and his crew captured with high-tech equipment. Tony Romeo/CEO Deep Sea Vision

5. Others Have Claimed To Solve This Mystery.

Over the nearly 90 years since Earhart and Noonan vanished, many people have claimed to have proof of what happened to them.

Members of the Ballard-led expedition dive in the primary search area just off Nikumaroro Island, an isolated ring of coral and sand surrounding a turquoise lagoon where some suspect Earhart may have been landed. Photograph By Gabriel Scarlett, National Geographic Image Collection

People who believe the Japanese captured and killed the aviators have pointed to everything from a generator retrieved in a Saipan harbor in 1960 to a photograph on a Jaluit dock revealed in 2017. TIGHAR, meanwhile, has claimed various smoking guns over the years but now argues that a preponderance of historical and archaeological evidence puts Earhart on Nikumaroro Island, 400 hundred miles south of Howland, where they believe she starved to death.

Then there’s the simplest explanation: that the aviators simply crashed into the ocean. Elgen Long, an airline pilot who with his wife Marie did the most extensive research into where that might have happened, wrote a book called Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved. Over three expeditions, Jourdan has looked where Long suggested (and elsewhere) and come up empty.

6. The Mystery Is Still Unsolved. That Doesn’t Mean Its Unsolvable.

Jourdan’s team believes they’ve narrowed down where the Electra went down based on recent radio signal testing. Meanwhile, when Deep Sea Vision returns to the site this year, they will bring a documentary crew to capture the moment. “This is definitely something that we need to go back and look at,” says Romeo. “We’ve got to get out there before … you know, there is some urgency.”

Top: The Romeo Brothers are planning another Pacific Ocean expedition to get better sonar images to confirm whether they have discovered the ruins of Earhart's doomed voyage. Bettmann Archive

Bottom: Deep Sea Vision believes they may have come across Amelia Earhart's wrecked plane in the Pacific Ocean. Photo: Bettman via Getty Images/Deep Sea Vision

Tony Romeo holds a model of Amelia Earhart's plane, which resembles sonar images he and his crew captured with high-tech equipment. (Tony Romeo/CEO Deep Sea Vision)

[chloesimaginationthings]

FNAF Phone guy was wild for saying that to Michael..

[porter-pumpkim]

ii name realization

Steve cobs actually has a name, Steve,

His name isn't corn cob, while the contestants are just called what they are,

What if in the actual real world that mephone4 has avoided objects actually have names, like in hfjONE, but sense mephone has only ever known cobs or just couldn't think of names, they just got called what they are?

Imagine being an ii contestant finally entering the real world, and everyone is very weirded out that you do the equivalent of introducing yourself as "human person" or "homosapien guy" instead of saying an actual name,

To a contestant it's a weird situation of realizing you're missing several key traits of being a person, like a name, a background, a childhood, as far as the government is concerned you don't even exist,

While to regular objects, these strange almost but not quite people are going around functioning on logic regular people just can't, flaming paintbrushes, psychic candles and spoons, healing from things like broken limbs in just a day cause any longer is inconvenient, (looking at you knife) falling from hights that should kill someone and being fine, summoning teacups from literally nowhere for comedic effect mid conversation, (looking at you taco) doing things a regular person can't, they don't have names, they don't have actual jobs, it's genuinly like cartoon characters come to life trying to function in a real setting,

[ruby-static]

Dude caught me taking a screenshot, I'm cooked-

[freshbeeth]

fuck it. off the hook songs + irl equivalents playlist

(link in title, tracklist below cut)

OtH first, IRL second

i will NOT be accepting constructive criticism

[babyblueetbaemonster]

@tes-summer-fest 24, day 2: secret

Drumming the wall, looking for secret door, with some rhythms or maybe more :3

[firstkanaphans]

Does anyone else get the feeling that Ray is trying to satisfy every single one of his social needs through Sand alone? It’s almost like he’s thinking, “I will pay this boy for companionship and sex and a safe ride home and then no one else will ever have to deal with me again.” And in his mind, it’s fine to subject Sand to that because he’s paying him.

If Ray’s mom really did die from complications of alcoholism, then he is already intimately aware of how his drinking affects those around him and he doesn’t want to be a burden to the people he actually cares about anymore. Enter Sand. But with Ray already this dependent on him, what’s he going to do when Sand tries to uphold their bargain and leave? Because I don’t know exactly what Ray is feeling about Sand right now, but I do know it’s not “only friends.”

[skeletalheartattack]

have you posted about gelato before :o ?

honestly, every mention ive made of Gelato in the past month or so has just been through the tags of some posts ive reblogged on here, it's only been until now that ive gotten around to showing him off!

this is Gelato, a Flamingo/Secretarybird mix that my friend @meetthehelper put together!

for a while, i've been wanting to figure out a bird fursona for myself, and i wanted one that had a similar silhouette to that of Scratch (i.e. Scratch & Grounder), and the bird that seemed to make the most sense to me was a flamingo. it was Helper's idea to mix him with another bird species, and i really like what she ended up with :)!

[trialserrors]

au where michael isn’t the only corpse wandering around hurricane

(her design is based off of scrap baby)

[baconmoop]

Something that just popped in my head that I've never thought of before:

If Lup hadn't died pre-voidfishing, wouldn't she have been even worse than Davenport?

Like, at least Dav kept his name. Lucretia erased everyone's memories of her, surely she'd be a completely blank canvas. Did Lucretia not think of that? Was she so sure that Lup was already dead that it didn't matter? Or did she think she'd be fine in the middle of nowhere, completely devoid of memory?

Sure, Davenport was the way he was because 'his life was the mission' or whatever. But Lucretia must have redacted so much to make sure Taako didn't remember his sister. There can't have been much left.

(Anyway someone write the fic please thank you)

[where-is-hotguy]

Oh dear god. I already go to therapy every Wednesday I don’t need Hotguy to be my therapist

so, tell me anon...

how does that make you feel?

[wormtoxin]

fanart for maedotmkv she’s cool check her out maedotmkv.com

[fahbev]

Unstoppable Force meets Immovable Object

(That title kinda sucks and is subject to change) If you saw my last post, you can skip ahead. It’ll be pretty obvious where the new stuff starts.

If you aren’t familiar with the “humans are space orcs” genre, I highly recommend searching up #humans are space orcs. I wanted to focus on the implications of being a “space orc”, and the kind of complex it would give someone long term. I also wanted to explore how it would affect different characters differently; so here I present two case studies;

A hippo and a moose walk into a bar. Metaphorically.

The human Sofia sits at the bar. The seats within six feet of her are all empty. She guzzles her fifth citrus drink - apparently most species are affected by it similarly to alcohol, and some weaker species would be dead by the fifth drink. Sofia remains unaffected. She could drink 30 and be unaffected. All her drinks combined are about half as potent as an orange slice. It doesn’t even taste good. She slams her empty goblet on the table, all for show. The conversations nearby hush even further, and the fearful whispers start up again. Good. She should be feared.

The door opens. In comes a gust of wind, and a hulking figure. No one in the bar is talking now.

Sofia slowly turns to face the door. She sizes up the newcomer. They’re big, not twice Sofia’s height, but a few feet shy. Not that it matters, when she’s wrestled creatures the size of bears before. The armor plating though, it sported a recognizable pattern. The forelimbs too, that were an odd combination of insectoid legs and tentacles, were a dead giveaway. This was a rragletatch. One of the most feared species in the multiverse, from one of the deadliest worlds known to the galactic community. They’re as rare as humans too. She smirks. Finally, a worthy opponent.

Some chatter starts up again as the rragletatch begins to walk up to the bar, pretending to ignore Sofia. It was still eerily quite, considering this was a bar, and people were drunk. A few gasps and screams echo when Sofia abruptly stands up, knocking over her stool. Her smirk widens into a grin. She stalks confidently up to the rragletatch stranger, and stands close enough that they can’t ignore her. Several people began filing out of the building, while others chose to stay. “So.” The alien greets her.

“You’re one of those infamous rragletatchen I hear of, no? The ones who are supposedly suuuuper scary?”

“Yes, I am rragletatchen. You’re human, right?”

“Damn right.”

“well then.”

A long pause. Practically the whole bar was listening in anticipation.

“Fight me.” Sofia’s expression didn’t waver. On Earth, she never could have looked so intimidating while staring so far up at someone.

“No.” what? “Oh? You scared? I thought you were supposed to be tough or something.” The stranger didn’t look scared, but they must be. Why else would they not want to fight?

“I’m not scared.”

“Then square up bitch. See who’s stronger. Finally put it to the test.”

“No.”

The whispers now were not of fear, but of confusion.

“I will not engage in needless violence,” the rragletatch continued, “contrary to the stereotype of my kind, I will not harm others if at all avoidable. Attack me if you will, I refuse to fight you.” The rragletatch stood still in a wide, but open stance, as if preparing to be hit. Sofia felt a flash of guilt. Something about attacking an opponent who refused to fight back felt wrong.

“You don’t want to see? Find out who the real champion is?” Sofia pushed aside her feelings and stared up. Unafraid, taunting as ever.

“No. My parents, grand parents and great grandparents before me have embraced a sacred philosophy of pacifism. It saddens me that my kind is known only for cuttthroat violence, only because of our home and biology. I refuse to hurt you. Do you truly wish to hurt me?”

Sofia was a bit shocked to say the least. When she realized her jaw was open and her head cocked, she quickly schooled her expression. That question though... she thought she did. But usually she just liked to brawl. Scare people. Assert dominance. When faced with an unwilling opponent who would not be scared of her... she realized she did not wish to cause harm. She never liked hurting people, that was never the fun of it.

“No.” Sofia sighed. She slouched from her offensive stance and backed over to her seat. “Come, sit with me.” It was phrased like a command, but really it was an offer. Everyone knew Sofia would have a hard time forcing this stranger to do anything. The rragletatch followed reluctantly. Sofia picked up her stool and plopped herself haphazardly on it. The stranger sat more eloquently on one of the many seats next to her.

“I’m Sofia.”

“Yal-sre.”

People moved their seats even farther from the Death-Worlders, or as some call them, orcs. Suddenly, Yal-sre relaxed their whole body.

“Wow.” Yal-sre almost whispered

“What?” Yal-sre made a sound that, in aliens with exoskeletons, tended to equate to a soft laugh.

“To be completely honest, I thought you were going to kill me.”

Sofia barked a laugh.

“hey! I’ve never met a human before! I didn’t want to judge based on reputation due to my own, but you came on pretty aggressively!”

“Yeah, I’m the apex predator ‘round these parts, and I plan to keep it that way. Still though, I ain’t gonna fight you if you don’t wanna.”

“That’s a relief.”

Neither knew what to say next, and suddenly the nearby silence was so loud. Fortunately, a few conversations began to pick back up now that they were talking peacefully.

“What’s your planet like?” Sofia asked.

“My planet, Challrk, is beautiful. It has vast plains of purple vshink, glowing with bioluminescent insects. Sure, they bite. Sure, I’ve been stung, bitten, chased and harassed by many a critter, but Challrk is a truly incredible place. It has high mountains that stretch beyond the atmosphere, and colors some planets can’t imagine. Our sky is orange and pink, if you can believe that. What’s Earth like?”

“Earth. It’s a rough and tumble place, you can’t survive there without being Hardy. I’ve been chased by swarms of wasps and stung repeatedly more than once. I stepped on a bee and couldn’t walk properly for days. I’ve been stung by jellyfish, and went back into the bay knowing they were there with no protection. Unafraid. Earth is rough, our fauna is often hostile and transmits thousands of deadly ailments, much of our flora is poison. Our weather conditions alone could wipe out an entire species instantly. Earth is extreme.”

“i’m sure that’s true, but that’s what you’ve been told. By people who have never been there. People who are scared because they couldn’t survive there. But what is it actually like? What do you remember?”

“I- I remember the heavy storms. I remember punching a goose and having to go to the hospital. I remember- I remember the blue skies. Fluffy white clouds, flocks of songbirds. I remember walking barefoot because I loved the green grass under my feet, not because I was trying to face danger. I remember a loving family, playing with friends. Warmth and love. I remember going in the bay because I loved the feeling of swimming and playing in the water, not because I wanted to be tougher than the jellyfish. Earth is- Earth is a BEAUTIFUL place and it makes me ANGRY” Sofia slammed both her fists on the table, “that all it’s known for is being dangerous.” A few satisfying screams and gasps rang off in response. Sofia looked over at Yal-sre. When they didn’t say anything, “I can’t read your face or body language. Can you give me a description?” This was actually a normal question to ask, in places where species were mixed.

“Uh, understanding, I’ve been there. Pleased that we’re getting somewhere. Uhhhhh, still kinda scared of you though. Sorry,” Yal-sre answered. Sofia gaped for a second, before she gave another rough laugh, knowing she probably sounded unhinged to the alien. “Ah!” Yal-sre yelped, “What- what are yours?” Sofia laughed harder. “laugher can mean many things, in most cases it means ‘amused’. Right now, I am laughing at you, meaning I’m being rude because I find your fear amusing. If there was any non-human who wouldn’t be scared of me, I thought it would be the damn rragletatch. You guys are supposed to be tough shit, but you’re pathetic.”

Yal-sre paused. “Well, yeah. Some of us are tougher than others.”

“Hm, yeah I guess it’s kinda the same with humans. That makes sense. Obviously if you put a fearless human who’s tougher shit than most together with the most timid rragletatch, of course you’d be scared.”

“I’m not the most timid! I’m normal! I’ll bet most humans would be scared of me too, after hearing how “dangerous” we are for so long.”

“Maybe. Humans are tough, but I’ll admit they’re not all like me.” Yal-sre did an odd motion with their... shoulder?

“Translation? I don’t speak shoulder,” Sofia attempted to mimic the motion.

“Understanding, but now amused. Anyway, does it bother you?”

“Does what?” “The fact that everyone is afraid of you? ... even me?”

“I like being feared.”

“Do you?” Sofia took a long sip of her drink - which probably made it look like she was drowning her sorrows - to avoid answering the question. When she was done, she placed the goblet face down on the bar to signal to the bartender that she was ready for a refill. The metal was dented... she had put it down too forcefully.

“Oops.” Though it had been an accident, her voice held no remorse.

NEW STUFF STARTS HERE!

“And yes. I do like being feared.”

“If you say so. I can’t speak to human psychology. Say, did you drink that entire thing?”

“Yup. I had four others too.” “Really? You don’t seem drunk at all.”

“It’s just citrus. Doesn’t affect me. Back home we give much more concentrated juice to our young children, it tastes way better too.”

“Oh, I get it. On Challrk we give concentrated fentanyl to our kids.” Sofia gave Yal-sre a look, even knowing it might not translate across body languages. Yal-sre seemed to get it though; “Yeah, yeah, I know. But it doesn’t affect us! It’s the same as your citrus drinks, fentanyl occurs naturally in the blood of prey animals, and their blood is very nutritious and tasty to young rragletatchen.”

“yeah, that makes enough sense.” Sofia drummed her fingers on the table, “Isn’t it weird? All aliens have biology differences, nothing seems crazy anymore because everyone is so crazy to each other. But when it’s us, suddenly it’s just more proof of how hardened and tough we are. Being immune to citrus or fentanyl doesn’t make us any scarier. Not really.”

“It’s because our planets are no-fly zones. And- I guess there’s a bunch of reasons. Just because we can be dangerous doesn’t mean we’re aggressive though.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“Okay- actually, in a minute I will, but first- I can tell that you want to seem tough. I’m sure you’re plenty tough to back it up, but I just want to assure you that you don’t have to pretend. People will think you’re tough and scary no matter what you do. For better or worse.”  “Body language: unimpressed.”

“Okay I’ll- I’ll stop now. ‘Speak for myself’, as you said.”

“You’d better.”

A small, shy noise from behind the counter. Both “space orcs” turned to look. The bartender’s ears were flattened.

“Excuse me, Mx. is that another refill?” The bartender cautiously reached out to flip Sofia’s goblet back over.

 “... get me a kids’ drink this time, surprise me. This shit tastes like garbage anyway.”

The bartender looked surprised. Sophia was surprised herself, that she was able to read them.

“Right away Mx. And for you... oh- I-” the bartender took two steps back upon recognizing Yal-sre.  “Right, I forgot why I was here. It definitely wasn’t for a drink.” Yal-sre stood up, seeming much more intimidating than when Sophia had approached them.

“Oh.” The bartender backed away farther, making themself smaller as well, “Is there anything else I can get you?”

“Actually, Aolli, I think there is. If you come with me out back, there are some answers I’d like to order.”

The bartender - scratch that - Aolli gulped, and dipped their head. Sophia was again impressed by the very Earthly body language. “Coming right up, Sir.”

Pt 2: https://www.tumblr.com/bahfev/715216491195269120/unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object-pt2?source=share

[thefalloutwiki]

Pictured: The Camp Guardian sign. It is the defaced roadsign for Guardian Peak, a real world location in Nevada.

And pictured is the texture file. The word "peak" is just barely visible.

You can read more about Camp Guardian here.

[merakiui]

Mera, what is Malleus's username in the group chat story? The chat was so delightful and fun to read!! those boys really can't stop bickering and bullying each other for five minutes (≧◡≦) ♡

Aaaa I’m so happy you enjoyed it!! In keeping with the classic “he wasn’t invited” trope twst uses for Malleus, he actually isn’t included in the group chat. He plays another role in the story. Although if he were to have a mildly humorous username, I think gargoylemuseum would be fitting.

And you’re right! The Housewardens struggle to work together even when the situation becomes dire. It’s always petty insults with them. ^^;;; poor (Name) is just trying to figure out who the villainous one is while they’re all blaming each other. Idia has fun, though. <3 maybe that’s all that matters hehe!

I should also mention there’s an idea for a spin-off to this story that involves the Vice Housewardens, in which it’s Ortho who adds them to the group chat because he’s trying to play matchmaker (by attempting to help a group of strangers become friends), but unfortunately he’s added you to a group chat full of stalkers. :( Ortho, your synthetic heart is in the right place, but everyone is crazy here. Even Trey!! Especially Trey!!!!!!