Social:Chaos cloud

Short description: Internet hoax

The chaos cloud is a hoax that originated in a Weekly World News article in September 2005. It was published online at Yahoo! Entertainment News. According to the article, the chaos cloud is a massive object in outer space that "dissolves everything in its path, including comets, asteroids, planets and entire stars", and is due to reach Earth in 2014.

The hoax article generated a large amount of discussion online, as people attempted to discern whether or not it was genuine. Articles on the subject appeared at a diverse range of sites, such as Bad Astronomy, Whirlpool, Free Republic and Overclockers Australia. It has been debunked on Snopes and other urban legends sites.

See also

• Oort cloud
• Omega by Jack McDevitt

External links

• The chaos cloud hoax article at Yahoo! Entertainment News
• Chaos cloud debunked at Snopes
• Chaos cloud article at Bad Astronomy blog