Solar blast's magnetic cloud grew by one-fifth en route to Earth, spacecraft reveal

A University of Iowa-led physics team has detailed the extreme expansion of a magnetic cloud that originated from a huge, gaseous explosion on the sun. In a new study, the researchers describe the inflated magnetic cloud as recorded by spacecraft in separate, fortuitous locations as the cloud approached Earth. During that interval-spanning some 13 million miles (21 million kilometers)-the cloud expanded by a fifth of its original size during its approach to Earth, as plasma inside the super-expa...