An article on a fake news website says that one can float for five minutes on April 4, 2014, due to a “planetary alignment [that] decreases gravity,” but it’s just an old hoax.
The website News-Hound.org, which has published a number of viral hoaxes in the past, posted the article, which is just a variant on another prank.
“It has been revealed by the British astronomer Patrick Moore that, on the morning of April 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,” the article reads.
The original “planetary alignment” prank is from 1976 when British astronomer Patrick Moore announced it as part of an April Fool’s Day joke.
News-Hound has been publishing similar hoaxes for the past three months, starting January 4.
Moore, who was a BBC Radio 2 astronomer, said the event would happen as part of an April Fools Day prank in 1976.
“Moore told listeners to jump at exactly that time to experience the once-in-a-lifetime effect. At 9:48, callers flooded the lines, eager to describe how they had briefly floated. News that Moore had played them no doubt brought everyone crashing back to earth,” reads a report frome Time magazine two years ago about the prank.
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