"Zero-G Planetary Alignment" Story Is a Hoax
Description: Viral hoax / Prank
Circulating since: Dec. 2013 (this version)
Status: False (see details below)
Text example
Via News-Hound.net, Dec. 16, 2013:
Analysis: This may sound familiar to connoisseurs of April Fools Day pranks. It's a loose homage to what many consider to be one of the greatest leg-pulls of all time, namely a BBC radio broadcast on April 1, 1976 during which famed amateur astronomer Patrick Moore announced that an unusual planetary alignment would briefly counteract the force of gravity on Earth at 9:47 that morning.
Anyone who jumped in the air at exactly that moment would experience weightlessness and a floating sensation, Moore promised. He labeled the phenomenon, which was supposedly the result of the planet Pluto briefly passing behind Jupiter, the "Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect." Though the prediction was (and is) a load of codswallop — other planets in our solar system do, in fact, exert a gravitational pull on earthly objects, but the amount is infinitesimal — hundreds of radio listeners reportedly called in to say they had indeed felt weightless for a fleeting moment.
Let's hope the silliness doesn't go that far this time around.
March 2014 update: News-Hound has re-published the prank article, now claiming the miraculous planetary alignment occurs on April 4, 2014. Fooled us twice? I hope not!
Dec. 2014 update: Fake news site Daily Buzz Live has resurrected the hoax yet again with a new article claiming the planetary alignment will occur on Jan. 4, 2015.
More astronomical folklore:
• What is a Blue Moon?
• Double Sunrise on Mars
• NASA's $12 Billion Zero-G Space Pen
• Can You Balance Eggs on End During an Equinox?
• Did Astronauts Have Sex in Outer Space?
• The "Eye of God" in Outer Space
• NASA and the Missing Day in Time
Sources and further reading:
January 4th 2014 - Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity - Float For 5 minutes!
News Hound (satire website), 16 December 2013
No, You Won't Be Able to Float on Zero G Day
Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog, 3 January 2014
Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity - April Fool's Day, 1976
Museum of Hoaxes
Sir Patrick Moore's April Fools' Day Gravity Prank Had Us Fooled
Sunday Post, 1 April 2015
Sir Patrick Moore - Bio
BBC (date unknown)
Last updated 04/25/15
Circulating since: Dec. 2013 (this version)
Status: False (see details below)
Text example
Via News-Hound.net, Dec. 16, 2013:
January 4th 2014 – Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity – Float For 5 minutes! #ZeroGDay
It has been revealed by the British astronomer Patrick Moore that, on the morning of January 4th 2014, an extraordinary astronomical event will occur. At exactly 9:47 am, the planet Pluto will pass directly behind Jupiter, in relation to the Earth. This rare alignment will mean that the combined gravitational force of the two planets would exert a stronger tidal pull, temporarily counteracting the Earth’s own gravity and making people weigh less. Moore calls this the Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect.
Moore told scientists that they could experience the phenomenon by jumping in the air at the precise moment the alignment occurred. If they do so, he promised, they would experience a strange floating sensation.
- Full Text -
Analysis: This may sound familiar to connoisseurs of April Fools Day pranks. It's a loose homage to what many consider to be one of the greatest leg-pulls of all time, namely a BBC radio broadcast on April 1, 1976 during which famed amateur astronomer Patrick Moore announced that an unusual planetary alignment would briefly counteract the force of gravity on Earth at 9:47 that morning.
Anyone who jumped in the air at exactly that moment would experience weightlessness and a floating sensation, Moore promised. He labeled the phenomenon, which was supposedly the result of the planet Pluto briefly passing behind Jupiter, the "Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect." Though the prediction was (and is) a load of codswallop — other planets in our solar system do, in fact, exert a gravitational pull on earthly objects, but the amount is infinitesimal — hundreds of radio listeners reportedly called in to say they had indeed felt weightless for a fleeting moment.
Let's hope the silliness doesn't go that far this time around.
March 2014 update: News-Hound has re-published the prank article, now claiming the miraculous planetary alignment occurs on April 4, 2014. Fooled us twice? I hope not!
Dec. 2014 update: Fake news site Daily Buzz Live has resurrected the hoax yet again with a new article claiming the planetary alignment will occur on Jan. 4, 2015.
More astronomical folklore:
• What is a Blue Moon?
• Double Sunrise on Mars
• NASA's $12 Billion Zero-G Space Pen
• Can You Balance Eggs on End During an Equinox?
• Did Astronauts Have Sex in Outer Space?
• The "Eye of God" in Outer Space
• NASA and the Missing Day in Time
Sources and further reading:
January 4th 2014 - Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity - Float For 5 minutes!
News Hound (satire website), 16 December 2013
No, You Won't Be Able to Float on Zero G Day
Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog, 3 January 2014
Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity - April Fool's Day, 1976
Museum of Hoaxes
Sir Patrick Moore's April Fools' Day Gravity Prank Had Us Fooled
Sunday Post, 1 April 2015
Sir Patrick Moore - Bio
BBC (date unknown)
Last updated 04/25/15
Source...