Too many of you are susceptible to the rantings and ravings of dips—ts, as if signing up for a social media account is all you need to consider someone an expert in their field. That is why people are now believing that the earth will allegedly “lose gravity” for seven seconds on August 12, 2026.
No. No, that absolutely will not happen.
The claim quickly spread across social media in a video that has since been removed but was originally posted by Instagram user @mr_danya_of on December 31. In the video, which is completely silent and features only text, the user claims it’s part of a mysterious NASA project called Project Anchor.
As the conspiracy theory goes, NASA predicted a 94.7 percent chance that two gravitational waves from black holes would intersect, briefly shutting off gravity on Earth. The agency knew all this and chose to remain silent.
No, Earth Isn’t ‘Losing Gravity’ in 2026
Reality, as usual, is less cinematic. Gizmodo and Snopes found zero evidence that Project Anchor exists or that any NASA document ever predicted a seven-second gravity outage. When asked directly by Snopes, the internet’s resident fact-checkers and debunkers of bulls—t, NASA’s response sounds like it should be bookended with exasperated sighs.
In an email to Snopes, a NASA spokesperson wrote that it would actually take the Earth losing gravity for only 7 seconds. See, the Earth’s gravity comes from its mass, which is the combined weight of its core, mantle, crust, oceans, and atmosphere. For gravity to vanish, the Earth would have to lose a meaningful chunk of itself.
Some random set of space-time ripples would not influence our gravity at all. It simply makes no sense. It’s just stupid nonsense. NASA didn’t say that last part. That’s my own little flourish that I’m sure they would love to include, but are mature enough not to. I am under no such obligation to act my age.
What is happening on August 12, 2026, is far less terrifying and far more predictable: a total solar eclipse. It won’t affect Earth’s gravity, but it will darken skies over parts of Europe and the North Atlantic. That happens all the time. Big woop.
There is no apocalypse. 40 million people will not die because gravity suddenly stopped working. It’s just the ravings of some random idiot, screaming on some internet street corner, wearing a placard that says “The End is Nigh,” and yet, for some reason, a lot of people chose to believe him.
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