Zero gravity for 7 seconds on August 12, 2026? The Project Anchor hoax, born from a real eclipse

Zero gravity for 7 seconds on August 12, 2026? The Project Anchor hoax, born from a real eclipse

By Dr. Kyle Muller

The rumor of an Earth without gravity for 7 seconds on August 12, 2026 is (think about it!) false. The hoax was born on social media and exploits a real event: the total solar eclipse. Here’s what’s true.

The news is circulating insistently on social media that the August 12, 2026 the Earth should “turn off” gravity for seven seconds, causing catastrophic effects. To make everything more credible, an alleged secret dossier and a phantom program called NASA are mentioned Project Anchor. In reality, it is a hoax carefully constructed around a real event.

How the “zero gravity” hoax was born

Between late 2024 and early 2025, some videos posted on Instagram and TikTok talk about an imminent “global gravitational event” for the first time. In the space of a few weeks the story is enriched with invented details: a precise date, a code name, astronomical figures attributed to NASA. In February 2025 the narrative explodes internationally, amplified by clickbait sites and conspiracy channels.

The connection with the eclipse of August 12, 2026

The strength of the hoax is its connection to a true fact: the August 12, 2026 is expected total solar eclipse, a rare and perfectly calculable astronomical phenomenon. The band of totality will cross Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain, making that date particularly suggestive and ideal for fueling misinformation.

Why gravity can’t “turn off”

According to the viral narrative, the alignment between the Sun, Moon and Earth would produce a sort of gravitational interference, sometimes linked to gravitational waves. In reality, this mechanism has no scientific basis: gravitational waves are too weak to have perceptible effects on people or objects and, moreover, gravity is not a switch, the gravitational force perceived by every body on Earth will continue to be directly proportional to the mass of the Earth itself and inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the center of the Planet (the lack of creativity of the laws of physics, which are always the same, can at most be discussed).

What will really happen that day

There NASA has (obviously) denied the existence of Project Anchor and any gravitational blackout. In the areas affected by the eclipse, the sky will darken for one or two minutes, the temperature may drop slightly and the light will change color. Nothing unusual will happen on the rest of the planet.

For those who, on the fateful date, wanted spend a memorable day, there is no need to wait… an invented catastrophe: just take a trip to Iceland, where the total eclipse will be visible over unique landscapes, or in northern Spain, between Galicia and Asturias, among the best spots in Europe to watch the Sun disappear completely.

Kyle Muller
About the author
Dr. Kyle Muller
Dr. Kyle Mueller is a Research Analyst at the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department in Houston, Texas. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Texas State University in 2019, where his dissertation was supervised by Dr. Scott Bowman. Dr. Mueller's research focuses on juvenile justice policies and evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing recidivism among youth offenders. His work has been instrumental in shaping data-driven strategies within the juvenile justice system, emphasizing rehabilitation and community engagement.
Published in

Leave a comment

20 − ten =