We came across a claim on Reddit and X that Earth will briefly lose gravity for seven seconds on 12 August 2026. According to the posts, NASA is running a secret operation dubbed “Project Anchor”, said to be tied to an $89 billion budget, which aims to test whether Earth can survive a gravity disruption. Given that 12 August is a week away from the time we’re writing this claim, we delved deeper into the veracity of this post.
Searches of NASA’s public archives, including the NASA Technical Reports Server, along with Freedom of Information Act releases, congressional records and academic publications, turned up no document referring to a “Project Anchor”.
The claim also misunderstands basic physics. Under both Newton’s law of universal gravitation and Einstein’s general theory of relativity, gravity is not a force that can be switched on or off; it exists continuously because Earth has mass. Earth’s gravitational acceleration, roughly 9.8 metres per second squared at the surface, would only change if the planet itself lost a significant proportion of its mass, which is not something that can simply be turned on and off as part of a scientific test. The Sun and Moon do exert real, well-understood gravitational effects on Earth, but these govern tides, not the planet’s overall gravitational pull, and their influence is predictable decades in advance rather than being capable of triggering a sudden seven-second anomaly.
There is a genuine astronomical event on 12 August 2026: a total solar eclipse, visible from parts of Europe and the Arctic. This appears to be the anchor for the hoax’s date and lends it a veneer of credibility, but a solar eclipse has no bearing on Earth’s gravity. It is simply the Moon passing between the Sun and Earth, blocking sunlight along a narrow path, an entirely separate and well-documented phenomenon.
The rumour follows a familiar hoax template: a specific date and time, a large fabricated budget figure,and a supposedly leaked classified document, all designed to lend an outlandish claim a false sense of authority. Based on available evidence however, the claim is false. While an astronomical event will indeed be occurring on 12 August 2026, the event is a total solar eclipse and not the Earth losing gravity.
