NASA desmiente teoría viral: la Tierra no perderá gravedad el 12 de agosto

A rumor has been spreading across social media in the hours leading up to August 12, 2026—a day marked by a solar eclipse. The claim is stark: for seven seconds, Earth will lose its gravity. People, animals, cars, and objects will float upward. Then, when gravitational force returns, everything will crash back down. NASA has flatly denied this, stating there is no scientific evidence whatsoever that such a thing will occur.

The rumor is anchored to something called "Project Anchor," described in viral posts as a secret NASA program designed to prepare for exactly this kind of gravitational anomaly. According to the versions circulating online, the project carries a budget of 89 trillion dollars and the event is scheduled for 2:33 p.m. UTC—8:33 a.m. in central Mexico. The theory maps out the catastrophe in granular detail: in the first two seconds, unsecured objects begin to rise. By seconds three and four, they reach heights of 15 to 20 meters. Chaos ensues. At seven seconds, gravity returns and everything falls. Some posts claim the event could kill between 40 and 60 million people and cause years of economic damage. Others describe NASA constructing bunkers for scientists, politicians, military officials, and select civilians. Survival protocols have been shared—stay indoors, lie flat on your stomach, grip fixed structures firmly.

The deeper layer of the story attributes the gravity loss to intersecting gravitational waves from black holes, supposedly predicted since 2019 with 94.7 percent certainty. The specificity of these claims—the exact time, the precise budget figure, the death toll estimates—has given the rumor weight and credibility in the eyes of people scrolling through their feeds. The coincidence with an actual eclipse on that date has only amplified the theory's reach.

When NASA was asked about Project Anchor by the fact-checking site Snopes, a spokesperson was direct: the project does not exist. The agency explained that Earth's gravitational force is determined entirely by the planet's mass. Gravity cannot simply switch off for a few seconds. For Earth to lose gravity, the entire planetary system—its core, mantle, crust, oceans, continental waters, and atmosphere—would have to lose mass. That is not what happens during a solar eclipse, or at any other time in the foreseeable future.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, blocking sunlight from reaching certain regions of the planet. It is a geometric event, nothing more. The Sun and Moon do exert gravitational pull on Earth, and this does influence tidal forces on the planet. But these effects are well understood, thoroughly studied, and predictable far in advance. An eclipse has no capacity to disable Earth's gravity.

The survival protocols circulating online—lying flat, holding onto furniture, staying in rooms with low ceilings to avoid being launched upward—are based on a scenario that will not happen. There is no need to prepare for a gravity loss on Wednesday, and no special shelter is required. What people who plan to observe the eclipse should actually do is protect their eyes. Looking directly at the Sun without proper optical filters can cause serious, permanent damage to vision. That is the real precaution worth taking.

So when Wednesday morning arrives and someone claims that at 8:33 a.m. everything will begin to float for seven seconds, there is no reason to panic. Project Anchor is not real. Earth will not lose its gravity. The eclipse will happen, the sky will darken for a time, and then the day will continue as it always has.