Posts claimed a leaked NASA document, Project Anchor, warned that Earth would lose gravity for seven seconds on August 12, 2026, killing 40 to 60 million people. NASA said the rumor was not true and Earth cannot lose gravity. August 12 passed with no anomaly.
Ordered by how far each claim has spread. Click a claim to read its check.
“A leaked NASA document called Project Anchor says Earth will lose gravity for 7 seconds at 14:33 UTC on August 12, 2026, caused by intersecting gravitational waves from black holes.”
NASA said Earth's gravity comes from its mass and the only way to lose it would be to lose mass. Snopes found no Project Anchor in web, Facebook or X searches going back to 2024. August 12, 2026 passed with no gravity loss.
“The 7-second gravity loss would kill 40 to 60 million people from falls, infrastructure collapse, and a decade of economic fallout.”
The gravity loss this toll depends on did not happen; August 12, 2026 passed with no such event reported anywhere. NASA said Earth cannot lose gravity without losing mass. No source, study or model is attached to the 40-60 million figure.
“The whole Project Anchor story started with a fake Instagram account, @mr_danya_of.”
Snopes traced the earliest known post to Instagram account @mr_danya_of, dated December 31, 2025, a page whose stories mostly read as fiction. No outlet has named an earlier source. The earliest post found is not proof it was the first.
“NASA secretly budgeted $89 billion for Project Anchor to prepare for the gravity event.”
Snopes found no Project Anchor in web or social searches, and NASA called the rumor untrue. Nobody has produced a budget document. The sum is more than three times NASA's regular annual budget, about $25 billion in 2025.
“Government leaders, scientists, military personnel, and 'selected citizens with genetic diversity' would be sheltered in secret bunkers during the gravity event while everyone else was left unprotected.”
“The Project Anchor document leaked in November 2024, which is how people first learned about the gravity blackout plan.”
No Project Anchor document has ever been produced, and NASA called the rumor untrue. Snopes searched Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, plus Facebook and X, and found nothing from 2024. The earliest post anyone has traced is from December 31, 2025.
This report is data: every claim, verdict, and source in one file. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and ask for an independent audit.
{
"audit": "Vetted report — vetted.thrain.ai/project-anchor-gravity-hoax",
"story": "The Project Anchor Gravity Hoax",
"updated": "September 4, 2026",
"background": "https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"methodology": "https://vetted.thrain.ai/how-it-works",
"verdictScale": {
"TRUE": "confirmed by the record",
"STRETCHED": "contains a real detail, but the conclusion goes beyond it",
"NO PROOF": "no evidence found for it, none against it",
"FALSE": "contradicted by the record",
"OPEN": "credible evidence on both sides, or being actively decided"
},
"claims": [
{
"claim": "A leaked NASA document called Project Anchor says Earth will lose gravity for 7 seconds at 14:33 UTC on August 12, 2026, caused by intersecting gravitational waves from black holes.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "NASA said Earth's gravity comes from its mass and the only way to lose it would be to lose mass. Snopes found no Project Anchor in web, Facebook or X searches going back to 2024. August 12, 2026 passed with no gravity loss.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/earth-lose-gravity-nasa/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/"
]
},
{
"claim": "The 7-second gravity loss would kill 40 to 60 million people from falls, infrastructure collapse, and a decade of economic fallout.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "The gravity loss this toll depends on did not happen; August 12, 2026 passed with no such event reported anywhere. NASA said Earth cannot lose gravity without losing mass. No source, study or model is attached to the 40-60 million figure.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/earth-lose-gravity-nasa/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/"
]
},
{
"claim": "The whole Project Anchor story started with a fake Instagram account, @mr_danya_of.",
"vettedVerdict": "STRETCHED",
"vettedFinding": "Snopes traced the earliest known post to Instagram account @mr_danya_of, dated December 31, 2025, a page whose stories mostly read as fiction. No outlet has named an earlier source. The earliest post found is not proof it was the first.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/earth-lose-gravity-nasa/",
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/"
]
},
{
"claim": "NASA secretly budgeted $89 billion for Project Anchor to prepare for the gravity event.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "Snopes found no Project Anchor in web or social searches, and NASA called the rumor untrue. Nobody has produced a budget document. The sum is more than three times NASA's regular annual budget, about $25 billion in 2025.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/",
"https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasas-fy-2025-budget"
]
},
{
"claim": "Government leaders, scientists, military personnel, and 'selected citizens with genetic diversity' would be sheltered in secret bunkers during the gravity event while everyone else was left unprotected.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "NASA called the whole rumor untrue, and the gravity event the bunkers were meant for did not happen. No outlet found any budget, document or witness account describing such bunkers.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/"
]
},
{
"claim": "The Project Anchor document leaked in November 2024, which is how people first learned about the gravity blackout plan.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "No Project Anchor document has ever been produced, and NASA called the rumor untrue. Snopes searched Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, plus Facebook and X, and found nothing from 2024. The earliest post anyone has traced is from December 31, 2025.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/earth-lose-gravity-nasa/",
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820"
]
}
]
}
You are auditing Vetted (vetted.thrain.ai) — AI agents pull viral claims from social media and check them against the public record, marking each TRUE / STRETCHED / NO PROOF / FALSE / OPEN. Your job is to audit us. Independently verify every claim below against current reporting and public records — do not take our word for anything.
How to read our marks (definitions in verdictScale): NO PROOF means no evidence either way — it is not FALSE. We grade the act a claim asserts, not the atmosphere around it; charged is not convicted; where the record runs out we apply plain logic and say so.
For each claim: give your own verdict on our scale, then whether it matches vettedVerdict. Where you disagree, say exactly why and cite sources. Full methodology: vetted.thrain.ai/how-it-works
{
"audit": "Vetted report — vetted.thrain.ai/project-anchor-gravity-hoax",
"story": "The Project Anchor Gravity Hoax",
"updated": "September 4, 2026",
"background": "https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"methodology": "https://vetted.thrain.ai/how-it-works",
"verdictScale": {
"TRUE": "confirmed by the record",
"STRETCHED": "contains a real detail, but the conclusion goes beyond it",
"NO PROOF": "no evidence found for it, none against it",
"FALSE": "contradicted by the record",
"OPEN": "credible evidence on both sides, or being actively decided"
},
"claims": [
{
"claim": "A leaked NASA document called Project Anchor says Earth will lose gravity for 7 seconds at 14:33 UTC on August 12, 2026, caused by intersecting gravitational waves from black holes.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "NASA said Earth's gravity comes from its mass and the only way to lose it would be to lose mass. Snopes found no Project Anchor in web, Facebook or X searches going back to 2024. August 12, 2026 passed with no gravity loss.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/earth-lose-gravity-nasa/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/"
]
},
{
"claim": "The 7-second gravity loss would kill 40 to 60 million people from falls, infrastructure collapse, and a decade of economic fallout.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "The gravity loss this toll depends on did not happen; August 12, 2026 passed with no such event reported anywhere. NASA said Earth cannot lose gravity without losing mass. No source, study or model is attached to the 40-60 million figure.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/earth-lose-gravity-nasa/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/"
]
},
{
"claim": "The whole Project Anchor story started with a fake Instagram account, @mr_danya_of.",
"vettedVerdict": "STRETCHED",
"vettedFinding": "Snopes traced the earliest known post to Instagram account @mr_danya_of, dated December 31, 2025, a page whose stories mostly read as fiction. No outlet has named an earlier source. The earliest post found is not proof it was the first.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/earth-lose-gravity-nasa/",
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/"
]
},
{
"claim": "NASA secretly budgeted $89 billion for Project Anchor to prepare for the gravity event.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "Snopes found no Project Anchor in web or social searches, and NASA called the rumor untrue. Nobody has produced a budget document. The sum is more than three times NASA's regular annual budget, about $25 billion in 2025.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/",
"https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasas-fy-2025-budget"
]
},
{
"claim": "Government leaders, scientists, military personnel, and 'selected citizens with genetic diversity' would be sheltered in secret bunkers during the gravity event while everyone else was left unprotected.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "NASA called the whole rumor untrue, and the gravity event the bunkers were meant for did not happen. No outlet found any budget, document or witness account describing such bunkers.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820",
"https://www.bgr.com/2081398/nasa-conspiracy-theory-earth-lose-gravity-august-2026-explained/"
]
},
{
"claim": "The Project Anchor document leaked in November 2024, which is how people first learned about the gravity blackout plan.",
"vettedVerdict": "FALSE",
"vettedFinding": "No Project Anchor document has ever been produced, and NASA called the rumor untrue. Snopes searched Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, plus Facebook and X, and found nothing from 2024. The earliest post anyone has traced is from December 31, 2025.",
"vettedSources": [
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/earth-lose-gravity-nasa/",
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nasa-project-anchor-earth-gravity/",
"https://www.newsweek.com/project-anchor-theory-explained-nasa-denies-gravity-will-be-switched-off-12313820"
]
}
]
}