broom challenge

A multitude of trends and memes sweep the Internet, but none more so than the latest: the broom challenge.

After a few memes, photos and videos began to appear, the broom challenge decently swept through social media outlets, including Facebook and Twitter.

While many have seemed to meet the challenge by standing their brooms upright on the bristles, the reason for this phenomenon is based on faulty evidence.

According to the original tweet that spawned the broom challenge, NASA declared that last Monday, February 10, 2020, it was possible to stand a broom on end on because of a variation in Earth’s gravitational field.

However, no evidence could be found that NASA actually made this claim, and many scientists came out of the woodwork to refute the concept.

The original tweet seemed to hold merit when it was initially released because a video was attached showing that a broom was indeed balancing upright on its bristles.

By the end of the day, the tweet had 50,000 shares, which spilled over into additional social media outlets, including Facebook and Twitter. Even popular celebrities got into the trend.

In the end, NASA spokesperson Karen Northon spoiled all the fun with an official announcement to USA Today that this time, the hoax was “harmless,” but it remains important to do some research and check the facts of any claims on social media.

“This is another social media hoax that exemplifies how quickly pseudoscience and false claims can go viral,” said Northon.

Paul Sutter, astrophysicist and author of the book Your Place in the Universe, says the party trick can be done anytime during the year at any point of the day.

“I hate to be that astronomer, but the planets don’t care about your broom,” Sutter stated. “The trick has less to do with the Earth’s gravitational pull on a certain day and more to do with the object’s center of gravity. Brooms have a low center of gravity, which allows them to balance effortlessly on their bristles.”

According to a video from CNN, the standing-broom myth has been going on since at least 2012 and comes up each year around the vernal equinox.

What makes this year so special is how quickly the trend spread in light of the fact that the equinox does not even occur until March 19.

One astronomical feature that is new this year could be to blame for the quickly rising broom trend and that is the fact that six planets will be aligned on the same side of the solar system.

However, this will only make them more visible rather than causing any major gravitational shifts.

“When you’re done balancing your broom, you can go outside and see five planets in the sky at night,” said Sutter. Earth is the sixth planet in alignment.

Although the broom challenge has been debunked, much like the standing egg challenge that’s been going around for decades, some good may come of this social media trend.

Some scientists have seen this as a good opportunity to explain how equinoxes work and what effects they have on Earth.

The vernal equinox, the first day of spring, marks the time when the Northern Hemisphere begins to face toward the sun. This causes warmer temperatures and longer hours of daylight.

“Broom challenge? Let’s be glad people are excited about science,” exclaimed Cassandra Shivers-Williams of the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS).

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