Truth behind NASA's 'Project Anchor' that claimed Earth will lose gravity on August 12 for seven seconds

Earth is meant to lose gravity on August 12 for seven seconds according to a conspiracy theory spread online allegedly link to NASA, but what's really going to happen?

As if there isn't enough to worry about in the universe already, how about the prospect of Earth losing gravity for seven seconds?

For months, social media posts have been swirling, sharing a conspiracy theory that Earth's gravity will simply 'stop working' for just under 10 seconds tomorrow (August 12) as a result of activity to do with black holes.

And what's more, the theory even claims it's all connected to US space agency NASA.

An alleged document from the project was leaked in November 2024 and claimed NASA itself believed the seven-second gravity outage to be pending.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for NASA to weigh in, debunking the wild online theory.

The theory has been debunked by NASA (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

The space agency told Snopes: "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."

Multiple social media accounts discussed the theory until NASA cleared it all up, including one from a now-deleted Instagram account that gained a lot of traction.

A caption to the post read: "On August 12, 2026, the world will lose gravity for seven 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 wild internet theory went on to claim 'infrastructure destruction', 'mass panic' occurring and 'economic collapse lasting over ten years'.

The theory claimed 'infrastructure destruction' was on the horizon (Getty Stock Photo)

As per Snopes, the theory was explained step-by-step with another social media post. It stated: "What will happen:1-2 seconds: Everything not secured will rise (people, vehicles, animals).3-4 seconds: Objects will continue to rise to 15-20 meters.5-6 seconds: Panic and chaos will ensue as people hit ceilings.7 seconds: Gravity returns, and everything falls from height."

Thankfully, the whole internet theory is a load of nonsense, with NASA dismissing the claims and Snopes doing their investigative work to rule out any possibility the suggestion has any truth to it.