Following the solar eclipse that passed through the United States on Monday, August 21, rumors that there was going to be “15 days of darkness” began circulating. According to Snopes, the initial report first surfaced back in 2015. Due to Monday’s eclipse, the rumors resurfaced — but said rumors are completely false.
It didn’t take long for the following old report to start making the rounds and for social media to light up with posts about this supposed “black out” that would take place in three months time.
“NASA has confirmed that the Earth will experience 15 days of total darkness between November 15 and November 29, 2015. The event, according to NASA, hasn’t occurred in over [one] million years. Astronomers from NASA have indicated that the world will remain in complete darkness starting on Sunday, November 15, 2015 at 3 a.m. and will end on Monday, November 30, 2015 at 4:15 p.m. According to officials, the ‘November Black Out’ event will be caused by another astronomical event between Venus and Jupiter,” read the initial claim.
The bogus report went on the say that the White House had already been briefed on the occurrence, which would see most of the U.S. in complete darkness for the latter half of the month of November.
Unlike a solar eclipse in which the moon moves in front of the sun, blocking its light from the earth as part of its orbit, the “15 days of darkness” was something even more rare and more involved. As stated above, Venus and Jupiter would come into play, according to the false report.
Back in January, a site called Reflection of Mind reported that the two planets would pass one another very closely and would be “separated by just one degree.”
“Venus will move to the south-west of Jupiter and as a result it will shine 10 times brighter than Jupiter. Venus’ bright light will heat up the gases in Jupiter causing a reaction which will release a an absurdly high amount of hydrogen into the space. This reaction will come in contact with our Sun at 2:50 a.m. on November 15th,” the site reported. “Once the hydrogen reaches the Sun, a massive explosion is bound to occur on the surface of the Sun, increasing the temperature to more than 9000 degrees. The whole process will generate so much heat that the Sun will change its color into a bluish shade. Once this happens, the Sun will need a minimum of 14 days to restore its normal color and temperature,” the site continued.
NASA has not confirmed any such occurrence and there will not be 15 days of darkness in November.