Fake news that claimed that planet Earth would lose gravity for seven seconds on August 12, 2026, due to an alleged leak of a secret NASA document called “Project Anchor”, was officially denied by the space agency. With the date of the event already passed, the information proves to be unfounded, confirming the gravitational stability of our planet.
The central allegation of the rumor indicated that a confidential document, called “Project Anchor”, would have been made public in November 2024. This alleged leak would reveal that NASA had prior knowledge of a cosmic anomaly, which would result in the temporary loss of Earth’s gravity on August 12, 2026.
The assessment made on the information, after analyzing the facts and observing what happened on the mentioned date, classifies it as false. The predicted catastrophic event simply did not happen.
Over the first few months of 2026, speculation that Earth would experience a seven-second period of weightlessness on August 12 gained momentum, with alarmist projections of tens of millions of fatalities. Social media users claimed that NASA, aware of the event, was carrying out confidential preparations.
An example of this was a post in March 2026 on Instagram, made by the user @scaryshowcases. The post, which included a meme, said NASA was aware of the loss of gravity and was preparing for the event. The caption also mentioned a budget of US$89 billion for the “Anchor Project”, aimed at survival during the 7.3-second gravitational anomaly, and estimated between 40 and 60 million global victims.
Similar allegations emerged on other digital platforms, such as Bluesky, Facebook, Threads, TikTok and X, between the months of July and early August 2026. These posts fueled the narrative of an imminent and unprecedented event.
Although NASA had indeed confirmed a total solar eclipse for August 12, 2026 on its website, the rumor about “Project Anchor” and the loss of gravity was completely untrue. The real astronomical phenomenon has no relationship with Earth’s gravity.
Searches carried out on search engines such as Bing, DuckDuckGo and Google did not reveal reliable results that would prove any “Project Anchor” leak in November 2024 or later. Likewise, searches on the social networks Facebook and X, specific to the years 2024 and 2025, showed no discussions about such a project.
Understand the stability of Earth’s gravity
A NASA spokesperson clarified, via email, that the information about the loss of gravity was false. The agency stated that Earth will not lose gravity on August 12, 2026, as the planet’s gravitational pull is determined by its mass. For the Earth to lose gravity, it would be necessary for the Earth system as a whole including core, mantle, crust, oceans and atmosphere to lose mass. A total solar eclipse, like the one that occurred, does not cause an unusual impact on gravity, and the gravitational attraction of the Sun and Moon, which influences the tides, is a phenomenon known and predictable decades in advance.
How the rumor emerged and spread online
Investigations into the origins of the rumor indicate that the oldest known post was made on December 31, 2025, on the Instagram account @mr_danya_of. In early January 2026, the link to this post and the user’s page became inaccessible.
The user profile in question was known for sharing stories based on their interests, told from different, often fictional, perspectives. These narratives, made up of several paragraphs, appeared to have been created with the help of artificial intelligence tools, suggested by the common use of emojis in the subtitles of some videos.
