NASA forced to debunk viral claim Earth will lose gravity for seven seconds today
NASA has been forced to reassure the public that Earth will not suddenly lose gravity after a viral conspiracy theory claimed it would disappear for seven seconds on August 12.
The rumor alleged that intersecting gravitational waves from colliding black holes would cause gravity to shut off at exactly 14:33 UTC, or 10:33 AM ET. Posts warned that people could be thrown into the air, resulting in 40 million deaths, widespread infrastructure damage and an economic collapse lasting more than a decade.
Those claims were supposedly based on a leaked NASA document detailing “Project Anchor,” an alleged $89 billion plan involving secret bunkers for essential personnel and a genetically diverse group selected to repopulate Earth.
The predicted time has now passed without incident.
NASA & Project Anchor
A wild conspiracy theory went viral last year claiming that the Earth will lose its gravity for 7.3 seconds tomorrow morning at 10:33 E.T.
Story goes that NASA secretly detected gravitational waves from two black holes that collided millions of years ago,…
NASA & Project Anchor A wild conspiracy theory went viral last year claiming that the Earth will lose its gravity for 7.3 seconds tomorrow morning at 10:33 E.T. Story goes that NASA secretly detected gravitational waves from two black holes that collided millions of years ago,
— Jeffrey Epstein’s Ghost (@LewMan90) August 11, 2026
The conspiracy began circulating in late 2025 before exploding across Instagram, TikTok and X as August 12 approached. It is another example of NASA being pulled into viral space speculation after the agency previously responded to claims that 3I/ATLAS was an alien spaceship approaching Earth.
NASA previously addressed the claim in an email to Snopes, stating: “The Earth will not lose gravity on Aug. 12, 2026.”
The agency explained that Earth’s gravitational force is determined by its mass. For gravity to disappear, the combined mass of the planet’s core, mantle, crust, oceans, water and atmosphere would also need to disappear.
There is no evidence that Project Anchor exists, and gravitational waves produced by colliding black holes are far too weak to switch off Earth’s gravity. Unlike genuine threats that NASA monitors, such as the “city killer” asteroid it once considered nuking, the supposed gravity event has no scientific basis.
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The date did coincide with several real astronomical events, including a total solar eclipse, the peak of the Perseid meteor shower and a planetary lineup visible before sunrise. However, NASA stressed that “a total solar eclipse has no unusual impact on Earth’s gravity.”
The original claim was traced to a December 2025 Instagram post from an account known for publishing AI-generated stories. No authentic leaked document or evidence of an $89 billion NASA project has surfaced.
Earth may have produced some genuine cosmic surprises recently, including the discovery of a quasi-moon that had been trailing the planet unnoticed for decades, but NASA says a seven-second gravity blackout was never going to be one of them.