Science This Week | The scary sound of Earth’s magnetic field, an antibody treatment to fight malaria and more

Find all the latest news and updates from the world of science here.

From a potentially hazardous asteroid to a woman who overcame twelve tumors and is giving new hope for cancer research, find all the latest news, discoveries and findings that happened in the field of science this week.

Astronomers have spotted the closest known black hole to Earth —just 1,600 light-years away. It is 10 times bigger than the Sun and three times closer than the previous record-holder. The black hole was identified by observing the movement of a star that orbits the black hole.

A brand-new asteroid that crosses Earth’s orbit has recently been discovered. . The 1.5-kilometre-wide asteroid was found in an area where it is notoriously difficult to spot objects due to the glare of the Sun. Due to its proximity to Earth’s orbit, the asteroid may pose a threat in the future.

It is the “largest object that is potentially hazardous to Earth to be discovered in the last eight years”, scientists said.

Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have converted signals from Earth’s magnetic field into sound to hear what the field sounds like.

The Earth’s magnetic field is generated by the swirling, molten liquid iron 3000km beneath our feet in the outer core. The rumblings are a sonic representation of the magnetic field that protects the Earth from cosmic radiation and charged particles carried by powerful winds flowing from the Sun.

Arctic fires may release dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide in the coming decades, a recent study said. With climate change causing bigger fires in Siberia, carbon dioxide now trapped in the soil will be released in air. According to the study, these fires could increase exponentially even with small changes in the temperature. Recent fires in 2019 and 2020 released about 150 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.