Fact check: Did NASA confirm that the Earth is going dark in December due to solar storms?

The Claim

A few days ago, some websites were seen to claim that according to NASA, the Earth would be going dark in December. Some websites also specified the dates as December 16 to December 22 as the days when the Earth would go dark and not receive light from the Sun. One such article was written on a buzz website called Daily Buzz Live. The article stated that "Earth Will Go Dark For 6 Days In December 2020". Read on to know more about why people are searching about the possibility of the Earth going Dark in December. Below is a fact check report on the same.

Image credits: Facebook

Image credits: Daily Buzz Live website

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Fact Check 

• There is no official announcement made by NASA about the Earth going dark in these 6 days. 
• The article on Daily Buzz Live which had shared a link of NASA administrator Charles Bolden asking people to be prepared for the upcoming 'attacks' was also linked on the buzz article. However, Charles Bolden was actually talking about a family preparedness program in the video. He was preaching the citizens of the world to make sure that they and their families are prepared during any sort of emergency situation that may approach us and also make sure that their entire family is prepared to face any sort of calamity in those emergency conditions. For the unversed, Bodlen is no longer the NASA Administrator as the article claims as he had resigned in January 2017. 
• Even Facebook has marked the FB post as False information, after being tagged by many Facebook users. 

Image credits: Facebook

• X22 Report on Twitter is an account that covers news on economy, political and geopolitical issues. Some users even sent their queries regarding the Earth going dark news to him to do a fact check on the same as well. 

• In 2014, an article in Independent website stated that the “Nasa Confirms Earth Will Experience 6 Days of Total Darkness in December 2014!” is a hoax as well. A similar kind of story was circulated in 2014 as well, which claimed that solar storm would cause "dust and space debris to become plentiful and thus block 90% sunlight”. That time the story was shared by Huzlers.com. They had also used Bolden's video to claim that he was encouraging people to be prepared for an emergency attack. The same rumour had even spread in 2012, when NASA had to debunk the stories at that time too. 

Image credits: 

• Regarding the solar storm reports, there is no specific news from NASA against the same as well. However, NASA shared an image of Hubble’s “newest view of Neptune” on December 16. The US space agency took to Instagram to share an image of a giant storm in Neptune near the top centre of the planet, that is wider than the Atlantic Ocean. 

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Google Trends

Recently on December 14th when Earth experienced its last solar eclipse of the year, the hoax about NASA reporting of solar storm and Earth going dark in December started to circulate. During the Solar Eclipse, the Moon casts a shadow on the Earth, but it doesn't make the whole Earth go dark. The trends can even be checked on Google Trends on December 14th when the highest number of people were searching about the Earth going dark in December news. The buzz later slowed down. 

Image credits: Google Trends

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