Today, NASA officially refuted the rumor through the fact-checking website Snopes:The so-called "Earth will lose weight for 7 seconds on August 12, 2026, killing tens of millions of people" is a conspiracy theory with no scientific basis. It stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the principle of gravity, and the so-called "Project Anchor" document does not exist at all..
It is understood that this conspiracy theory rumor began to spread explosively on European and American social platforms at the beginning of this month, and spread to the world in mid-January.
The core statement is:At 2:33 pm on August 12, 2026, the earth's gravity will weaken by 94% due to "gravitational waves generated by the collision of two black holes", lasting 7 seconds, triggering a global disaster and causing an estimated 10 million deaths.
Because the rumors claimed that NASA had a secret document called "Project Anchor" and that it had invested US$89 billion to deal with the incident, and insiders leaked information, many people believed it to be true.
NASA stated,A total solar eclipse will indeed occur on that day, which can be seen in parts of Europe, Greenland, Iceland and Spain. However, the solar eclipse will not have any impact on the earth's gravity. This is a regular astronomical phenomenon..
According to Newton's law of universal gravitation and Einstein's general theory of relativity, gravity is an inherent property of mass. The Earth's gravitational field is generated by its mass of 5.97×10²⁴kg and will not be "turned off" or "suspended."
Even assuming that gravity really disappears for 7 seconds, what will really usher in will be the end:The Earth's atmosphere will begin to escape, the oceans will break away from the surface to form giant water balls, and the structure of the Earth itself may disintegrate due to internal pressure imbalances., far more than just "tens of millions of people died".