At the beginning of the year, a rumor started circulating on social media that the Earth would “lose gravity” for seven seconds on August 12, 2026, causing a global catastrophe. However, the information was denied by NASA.
People promoting the theory claimed it was leaked from a secret NASA document from November 2024 titled “Project Anchor,” according to Snopes.
Social media users copied and shared the text, claiming it showed the agency knew about the cosmic event and had made special preparations to handle it.
For example, on December 31, 2025, Instagram user @mr_danya_of, whose account has since become unavailable, shared a short video of a man sitting in a car without speaking.
The text superimposed on the images read (archived): “On August 12, 2026, the world will lose gravity for 7 seconds. NASA knows. They’re getting ready, but they’re not telling us why.”
The post description further claimed: “In November 2024, a secret NASA document titled “Project Anchor” was leaked online. The project budget is $89 billion and its goal is to survive a 7-second gravity anomaly expected on August 12, 2026 at 14:33 UTC.”
The post estimated “between 40 and 60 million deaths from falls“, “infrastructure destruction”“an economic collapse that will last over 10 years” and “generalized panic“: “What will happen: in the first two seconds, everything unsecured will rise into the air (people, animals, vehicles), in the next 3-4 seconds, things will continue to rise 15-20 meters and panic will set in, as people hit the ceilings, from the 7th second gravity returns and everything will fall to the ground“.
Other examples of this rumor have appeared on 4chan, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Threads, TikTok and X.
In short, although the NASA website stated that there would be a total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, the rumor of “Project Anchor” and the loss of gravity was false.
A NASA spokesperson later stated via email that the rumor was not true:
Earth will not lose its gravity on August 12, 2026. Earth’s gravity, or total gravitational force, is determined by its mass. The only way the Earth could lose gravity would be for the Earth system, the combined mass of the core, mantle, crust, oceans, land water, and atmosphere, to lose mass. A total solar eclipse has no unusual impact on Earth’s gravity. The gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon on Earth, which does not affect the planet’s total gravity but tidal forces, is well understood and predictable decades in advance.
Instagram user @mr_danya_of’s post is the earliest evidence of the rumor, according to searches.
The original link and video (archived) were visible on January 6. The next day, the user’s account was no longer accessible, displaying the message: “Profile not available. The link may be invalid or the profile has been removed.”
The user frequently publishes apparently fictional stories, possibly edited with the help of artificial intelligence, some clues being the use of emojis in the texts.
On other platforms, he claimed to have various professions, from Google employee to psychiatrist or criminologist.
After the rumor of “loss of gravity“, shared another made-up story about disappearances in Alaska. The user was contacted by Snopes for clarification.
