World5 min(s) read
Published 07:17 12 Aug 2026 GMT
According to a conspiracy theory that has been bouncing around social media for the past eight months, the Earth will lose gravity for 7.3 seconds at exactly 10:33am ET (2:33pm UTC) today.
If you are reading this, it hasn't happened yet.
Or perhaps it has, and you floated 60 feet into the air and came back down and just carried on with your day.
The theory is, obviously, complete nonsense.
NASA has said so. Physicists have said so - one publication described it as a conspiracy theory of 'a level of stupidity never before reached in the history of our species'.
Yet millions of people have engaged with it online. So here is what the claim actually says and why it is wrong.
On December 31, 2025, an Instagram user posted a video with text overlay reading: 'On August 12, 2026, the world will lose gravity for 7 seconds. NASA knows. They're preparing but won't tell us why.'
The caption went further.
It claimed a secret NASA document titled 'Project Anchor' had leaked online in November 2024.
The project allegedly had an $89 billion budget and a single goal - survive a 7-second gravitational anomaly expected on August 12, 2026, at 10:33am ET (14:33 UTC).
The post claimed the anomaly would be caused by two gravitational waves from black holes intersecting with Earth.
It said the event had been predicted in 2019 with a probability of 94.7%.
NASA had known for five years. They built bunkers for government leaders, scientists, military personnel, and 'selected citizens with genetic diversity'.
Everyone else, apparently, was on their own.
The theory breaks it down second by second.
In the first two seconds, anything not bolted down starts floating.
People, animals, cars, furniture. All of it.
Between seconds three and four, objects continue rising. People reach heights of 15 to 20 meters, roughly 50 to 65 feet, above the ground.
At 7.3 seconds, gravity returns. Everything comes crashing back down.
The post estimated 40 million deaths from falls. Infrastructure destruction. Economic collapse lasting over 10 years. Mass panic.
Gravity is not something Earth has like a battery or a switch.
It is a fundamental force that arises from mass.
As long as the Earth has mass, it has gravity. You cannot turn it off or pause it.
Two gravitational waves from distant black holes cannot override the gravitational pull of a 5.97 × 10²⁴ kilogram planet.
Gravitational waves do exist.
They were first detected in 2015 by the LIGO observatory.
But the waves that reach Earth from black hole mergers billions of light years away are incomprehensibly faint.
They stretch and compress space by less than the width of a proton. They do not cancel out gravity. They do not make people float. You cannot feel them.
A NASA spokesperson confirmed to Snopes that there is no 'Project Anchor', no leaked document, no $89 billion budget, and no predicted gravitational anomaly. 'There will be no loss of gravity on August 12, 2026,' NASA said.
But they would say that, wouldn't they?
The only real celestial event happening today is a total solar eclipse, visible from the Arctic to Spain.
Eclipses have been accurately predicted for thousands of years and do not affect gravity.
The original Instagram post went viral in early January 2026 and spread across TikTok, X, Reddit, 4chan, Bluesky, Facebook, and Threads within days.
Versions of the claim were translated into multiple languages.
Spin-off posts added new details - 11 scientists had supposedly died or gone missing. An independent physicist who confirmed the gravitational wave intersection had his paper retracted and vanished.
None of it was real. The scientists did not die. The physicist did not exist. The paper was never published.
Snopes rated the entire claim 'False'. IFLScience noted that August 12 was a clever date to pick because the real eclipse gives the theory a thin veneer of astronomical credibility. 'A good date for a rumour, as it has great SEO potential,' the outlet wrote. 'We checked.'
Because it was packaged well.
A specific date, a specific time down to the second, a named government agency and a leaked document with a budget figure.
The whole step-by-step breakdown of what would happen, explained with technical language about gravitational waves and black hole intersections.
It followed the same template as every viral conspiracy - take a real scientific concept, bolt a terrifying fictional scenario onto it, then add a government cover-up to explain why nobody official is confirming it.
The conspiracy also tapped into something real.
People do not trust institutions the way they used to.
When NASA says something is not happening, a growing number of people hear that as confirmation that it is.
In brief, nothing.
Gravity will continue to work.
You will remain on the ground. Your coffee will stay in your mug.
The Earth will keep orbiting the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour, held in place by the same gravitational force that has been operating without interruption for 4.5 billion years.
If you do float 60 feet into the air and come crashing back down at 10:33am, then fair enough. We were wrong. But we are not going to be wrong.
