NASA shoots down conspiracy theories that Earth’s gravity will disappear this week
Glad they cleared that one up.
Viral conspiracy theories that Earth’s gravity will briefly vanish on Wednesday — purportedly inflicting a cataclysm the federal government is hiding — are totally unfaithful, NASA assured humanity.
“Earth’s gravity, or complete gravitational drive, is set by its mass,” NASA advised Snopes, reminding the American folks in regards to the fundamentals of their elementary faculty science courses.
“The one means for the Earth to lose gravity could be for the Earth system, the mixed mass of its core, mantle, crust, ocean, terrestrial water, and ambiance, to lose mass,” NASA added. “The Earth won’t lose gravity on Aug. 12, 2026.”
The reason dispelled outrageous claims of a supposed gravitational anomaly headed for Earth which have been circulating on social media since late 2025, however reached a fever pitch this week because the day of its purported arrival — Aug. 12, 2026 — neared.
On-line searches for the likes of “gravity” even spiked this week, rising by 60% from final week, in line with Google.
The viral theories concerned claims of a leaked NASA doc describing “Mission Anchor,” a supposed program with an $89 billion price range devoted to making ready america for the calamity attributable to the gravitational occasion.
That occasion — supposedly attributable to intersecting gravitational waves from black holes — would trigger Earth’s gravity to fade for seven seconds starting at 10:33 a.m. EST Wednesday, and trigger widespread chaos throughout the planet, in line with the theories.
Something open air and never rooted right down to the Earth — folks, animals, automobiles, boulders, trains, oceans, rivers, the moon and extra — would turn into suspended as much as 65 toes within the air, whereas buildings would start to return aside, the wild theories declare.
Gravity would then return and every little thing would come crashing again down — a calamitous occasion resulting in tens of tens of millions of deaths and an financial collapse lasting 10 years and extra, in line with the debunked theories.
The conspiracies claimed NASA and the federal government had been making ready bunkers to carry important personnel and a choice of the populace with genetic variety for repopulation functions.
Unsurprisingly, nonetheless, the supposedly top-secret venture held little water when held as much as scrutiny — Snopes tracked it right down to a single Dec. 2025 Instagram put up from an account stuffed with AI-written crackpot tales, with TikToks and tweets grabbing maintain of the outrageous yarn and spinning it from there.
However gas was added to the conspiratorial hearth because the lots started to be taught of a singular convergence of cosmic occasions occurring on Earth on Aug. 12 — a photo voltaic eclipse, an alignment of planets throughout the daybreak sky and the height of the Perseid meteor bathe.
NASA, nonetheless, additionally dispelled notions that Wednesday’s distinctive array of celestial happenings had any bearing on the structure of Earth’s gravity.
“A complete photo voltaic eclipse has no uncommon affect on Earth’s gravity,” the area company mentioned.
“The gravitational attraction of the Solar and Moon on the Earth, which doesn’t affect Earth’s complete gravity, however does affect tidal forces, is nicely understood and is predictable many years prematurely.”
