Will Earth lose gravity for 7 seconds this August? Why this viral social media claim is spreading — and how much of it is true

In the current age of social media fervour, information and sometimes also misinformation spreads like wildfire.

Since times immemorial, ancient prophecies or modern viral hoaxes have spun tales of sudden catastrophes to explain life's uncertainties or grab attention, and in the digital age, social media supercharges this!

Amid these digital posts, the viral ‘belief’ that the world will lose gravity for a couple of seconds this year has gained limelight once again, but is this true or just a hoax?

Will the Earth lose gravity for 7 seconds this year?

A TikToker and Instagram user (account now deleted) sparked a frenzy claiming, "On August 12, 2026, the world will lose gravity for 7 seconds. NASA knows. They're preparing but won't tell us why."

"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." The post said that there would be "40 million deaths from falls," "infrastructure destruction," "economic collapse lasting over 10 years" and "mass panic."

The post garnered nearly 62,000 likes and 268,000 shares on Instagram alone.

The date coincides with the total solar eclipse visible from the Arctic to Spain, a choice favoured by doomsayers who relate celestial events to catastrophe, as per a Snopes report. Though eclipses have been precisely predicted for millennia, they continue to fuel conspiracy theories.

The absurd "science" behind it

The claim outlines an absurd timeline, where objects and people begin floating after 2 seconds, reach heights of 15-20 meters (49-65 feet) by 3-4 seconds, then crash down at 7.3 seconds as gravity abruptly returns, leading to widespread devastation. This violates Newton's first law, as any initial push off the ground without gravity would produce only slight movement, not massive leaps, unless someone perfectly times a jump.

NASA debunks the myth!

A NASA spokesperson said via email to Snopes, a fact-checking website, that the rumor was false, stating, “The Earth will not lose gravity on Aug. 12, 2026. Earth's gravity, or total gravitational force, 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. A total solar eclipse has no unusual impact on Earth's gravity.

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.”