NASA's January 4 'zero gravity day' story turns out to be hoax

"Nasa-backed" story which claimed that on 4 January earth will experience the "zero gravity day" when people would be able to float in the air for five minutes has turned out to be a complete hoax.

The post was shared more than a million times on Facebook after the article was published on 15 December, which claimed that a unique planetary alignment would decrease the effects of the Earth's gravity, causing temporary partial weightlessness, the independent reported.

Sources for the unusual interplanetary episode include a photoshopped tweet from Nasa and an explanation of the Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect, attributed to Sir Patrick Moore.

While microgravity events can be found off Earth, a Nasa representative told AL.com that "Temporary microgravity can be created using aircraft flying in parabolic arcs.