'Cannibal' solar storm to spark rare appearance of northern lights across 18 US states for one night only

STARGAZERS across America could look up and see the northern lights as a solar storm slams into Earth, forecasters said.

For one night only, dazzling auroras might be visible from Canada and parts of the United States on Monday into Tuesday morning.

After a powerful solar flare erupted from the sun on Saturday, experts predicted a geomagnetic storm would hit Earth's magnetic field late on Monday, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.

The massive storm is called a cannibal coronal mass ejection, meaning a faster ejection from the sun devoured a slower one, making a more powerful wave of solar material traveling through space.

It launched a full-halo CME, meaning a large eruption of plasma clouds from the sun fir