In recent weeks, a rumor claiming that Earth would “lose gravity” for 7 seconds on August 12, 2026, has whipped up an online frenzy. Social media users warned the catastrophe would kill tens of millions of people and even claimed—perhaps even more disturbingly—that NASA knows this is coming and is deliberately staying silent.

These wild claims stemmed from a reel posted by Instagram user @mr_danya_of on December 31, 2025, whose account became unavailable just days later. The video showed a man sitting in a car, not speaking, while overlaid text read: “In November 2024, a secret NASA document titled “Project Anchor” leaked online. The project’s budget is $89 billion, and its goal is to survive a 7-second gravitational anomaly expected on August 12, 2026, at 14:33 UTC [10:33 a.m. ET].”

The text went on to claim that the anomaly would result from the intersection of two gravitational waves from black holes, predicted by NASA in 2019 with a probability of 94.7%. It also claimed the agency is “building underground bunkers” to provide refuge for government leaders, scientists, military personnel, and “selected citizens with genetic diversity” during the event.

Of course, this is all completely bogus. Neither Gizmodo nor Snopes, a fact-checking and investigative reporting website, found any evidence to support the existence of Project Anchor or the documents that had supposedly been leaked online. When Snopes contacted NASA about the rumor, a spokesperson said exactly what we’re all thinking: That’s not how gravity works.

A gravity primer for internet conspiracy theorists

In their response, the NASA spokesperson astutely pointed out that Earth’s gravity is determined by its mass. “The only way for the Earth to lose gravity would be for the Earth system, the combined mass of its core, mantle, crust, ocean, terrestrial water, and atmosphere, to lose mass,” they wrote, according to Snopes.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes gravity not as a force, as Newton did, but as the curvature of spacetime. Massive objects such as planets warp the fabric of spacetime around them, and less-massive objects move along the curved paths this distortion creates, experiencing it as gravity.

Imagine placing a bowling ball (Earth) onto an outstretched rubber sheet (spacetime). The bowling ball would stretch the rubber and sink, creating a depression. Now, imagine placing a ping pong ball (a less massive object) at the edge of the sheet. It would roll down toward the bowling ball because it must travel along a surface deformed by the presence of an object with greater mass.

General relativity is one of the most rigorously tested theories in science and remains our best explanation for how gravity works. There is no evidence to suggest that the intersection of two gravitational waves from black holes would cause Earth to lose mass and subsequently gravity, but even if there was, this “predicted” gravitational wave crossover is entirely fictitious.

No black hole catastrophe, just an eclipse

Neither Snopes nor Gizmodo could find any evidence to support the claim that NASA had predicted that two gravitational waves from black holes would intersect on August 12. However, the agency’s website does state that a solar eclipse will occur on that date.

“A total solar eclipse has no unusual impact on Earth’s gravity,” the NASA spokesperson reportedly told Snopes. “The gravitational attraction of the Sun and Moon on the Earth, which doesn’t impact Earth’s total gravity, but does impact tidal forces, is well understood and is predictable decades in advance.”

According to NASA, totality will be visible from Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and a small part of Portugal, while much of Europe, Africa, and North America will experience a partial eclipse. So while there’s no need to prepare for a global cataclysm, August 12 is still worth marking on your calendar if you don’t want to miss a breathtaking celestial event.