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FACT CHECK: Did NASA Announce That Earth Will ‘Go Dark For 6 Days In December’?

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An article shared on Facebook claims NASA announced that “the world will experience total darkness between December 16 – December 22, 2020.”

Verdict: False

There is no record of NASA making any such statement. The false claim has circulated several times in recent years, according to a NASA spokesperson.

Fact Check:

The article, titled “ALERT: NASA Confirms Earth Will Go Dark For 6 Days In December 2020,” was published on the news blog Daily Buzz Live, and claims NASA has announced the world will experience six days of total darkness due to a solar storm causing space debris to block the sun. A video of former NASA administrator Charles Bolden encouraging families to practice emergency preparedness is embedded in the article.

“The world will remain dark for these 6 days, completely void of sunlight, due to a solar storm which will cause dust and space debris to block 90% of the sun,” the article reads, in part. “Bolden urges American’s (sic) to remain calm as we experience the largest solar storm our solar system has seen in 250 years.”

However, there is no record of NASA announcing six days without light between Dec. 16 and Dec. 22. If NASA had made such an announcement, media outlets would have almost certainly reported on it, yet none appear to have done so. A search of NASA’s website likewise found no announcements about an alleged solar storm blocking the sun’s light.

Tabatha Thompson, a spokesperson for NASA, confirmed in an email to the DCNF that the story is a hoax, noting it “has circulated off and on during the last decade” and that NASA “has not issued any statement with that false claim.”

While Bolden does, in fact, tell Americans that they should have an emergency preparedness plan in the video, at no point does he mention anything about preparing for the earth to experience six days of darkness. The video, which is several years old, appears to be unrelated to the article.

Bolden is no longer the NASA administrator, as the article claims. He was the administrator from July 2009 until he resigned in January 2017, according to his biography on NASA’s website. The current NASA administrator is Jim Bridenstine.