'Cannibal' CME from rare 'anti-Hale' sunspot will slam into Earth today, bringing auroras to 23 US states

'Cannibal' CME from rare 'anti-Hale' sunspot will slam into Earth today, bringing auroras to 23 US states Northern lights are projected across the Northern U.S. and Europe tonight as Earth gets hit by a strong solar eruption. A "cannibal" coronal mass ejection (CME) birthed from a rare type of sunspot will slam into Earth tonight (June 4), likely bringing auroras to skies above 23 U.S. states. The solar outburst began on June 2 from sunspot 4455, a dark patch on the sun's surface where powerful magnetic fields became knotted and unstable. These field lines then snapped, producing a series of X-class solar flares — the most powerful class of solar eruption — alongside multiple CMEs. CMEs are large, fast-moving clouds of magnetized plasma and solar radiation that occasionally get flung into space alongside solar flares. If CMEs smash into Earth, they cause disturbances in Earth's magnetic field, called geomagnetic storms, that can trigger partial radio blackouts and produce vibrant aurora displays much farther away from Earth's magnetic poles than usual. One of the CMEs thrown out by yesterday's eruption caught up with and engulfed a slower one, creating a combined, cannibal eruption, according to a model from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The cannibal CME is expected to arrive mid-afternoon EDT and will create a strong (G3) or possibly even severe (G4) geomagnetic storm, according to NOAA. Auroras resulting from this class of geomagnetic storm are often visible from northern parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York and Maine, according to NOAA. Skywatchers farther south in Oregon, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire will also have a chance of catching the light show.