'Zero G Day': The Planets Align For A Hoax On January 4

Stop me if you heard this one before but apparently the planets are set to align on Jan. 4 leading to a "Zero G Day" to kick off 2015 and five minutes of reduced gravity beginning at 9:47 a.m. PST (12:47 p.m. EST). Sounds great, right? Too bad it's a total hoax and one that's been floating around the Internet for the last few years.

In 2014, there were several "Zero Gravity Day" rumors and stories. The hoax news was usually found on News-Hound.org, which would just swap out a new day every couple of months. The news would get picked up, shared on social and everyone would get excited until it was quickly debunked.

The story that you'll experience weightlessness for a few minutes goes a little something like this: Pluto will pass behind Jupiter at 9:47 a.m. PST creating the perfect alignment of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune leading to a gravitational pull that rivals the one we experience every day on Earth. Our planet is no match in this game of cosmic tug-of-war, which means a little less gravity, and thus partial weightlessness, for a few minutes during this alignment.

It's a new year, which means a new hoax. This time, the "Zero G" rumor surfaced on Daily Buzz Live. The site had what appears to be a tweet from NASA announcing the planetary alignment. Other than that new wrinkle to the Internet urban legend, the article is taken verbatim from News-Hound.org.

The news was first circulated in January 2014 and again in April and July. The first half of 2014 was a great time for astronomical events, including a total lunar eclipse and Mars opposition, which may have helped fuel the zero-G hoax. To quickly debunk the latest story, NASA's Twitter feed shows no such tweet. If that's not enough, there are no mentions of any planetary alignment anywhere on the Internet aside from stories about "Zero Gravity Day." If every planet was aligned on one side of the sun, chances are astronomers and scientists would have been talking about that day well in advance and in great detail. For a more thorough debunking, check out Phil Plait's breakdown on Slate from 2014 or Universe Today's article on the latest "Zero G Day" article, both of which details the history of the hoax as an April Fool's joke from astronomer Patrick Moore in 1976.

The only humans who will be floating on Jan. 4 will not be on Earth but on the International Space Station.