New Delhi, Aug. 17 -- A powerful eruption on the Sun has sent a cloud of magnetised plasma towards Earth, with space weather forecasters expecting the solar material to reach Earth's magnetic field on Monday, August 17.

The event began on August 14, when a large magnetic filament erupted from the Sun's surface. The eruption produced a coronal mass ejection (CME) - a massive cloud of charged particles and magnetic fields blasted into space.

Space weather monitoring agencies have been tracking the CME and predict that it could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field.

The incoming solar material could trigger a G1-class geomagnetic storm, the lowest category on the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's five-level ...