CNN – World

By Delia Gallagher, Niamh Kennedy and Emma Tucker, CNN Former Pope Benedict XVI, who died Saturday in a monastery in the Vatican at the age of 95, asked for forgiveness for those he has “wronged” in the spiritual testament published following his death. Benedict, who was the first pontiff in almost 600 years to resign

By Ashley Strickland, CNN This year was full of moments that remind us why we look at the stars and dig into the past. Wonder and curiosity are some of the most powerful traits humans have, and together, they drive us to ask questions that lead to untraveled roads filled with revelations. Researchers, explorers and

By Kendall Trammell, CNN Get out of your East Coast mentality, America. Not everyone starts their New Year when you do. The Pacific Island nations of Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati were the first to see in the new year — when it was still 5 a.m. on December 31 on the East Coast of the

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Stunning meteor showers, full moons and eclipses will light up the sky in 2023. The year is sure to be a sky-gazer’s delight with plenty of celestial events on the calendar. A comet discovered in March 2022 will make its closest approach to the sun on January 12, according to NASA.

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The tree of life grew in 2022 as California Academy of Sciences researchers and their international collaborators discovered 146 new animal, plant and fungi species. The previously unknown creatures and plants were found around the world, including the mountains of California, Australia’s Queensland state, the rocky peaks of Brazil and the

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN From a small island in Polynesia to the white-sand beaches of Florida, the planet experienced a dizzying number of climate and extreme weather disasters in 2022. Blistering summer heat broke records in drought-stricken China, threatening lives and food production. In the United States, drought and sea level rise clashed at the

By Ashley Strickland and Jackie Wattles, CNN This year, humankind glimpsed the universe in ways that were never before possible, and space missions took unprecedented leaps forward in unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos. We witnessed the first mission to the International Space Station funded entirely by space tourists. A new space-based internet service played

By Marcia Reverdosa, Maija-Liisa Ehlinger and Heather Chen, CNN The son and daughter of Brazilian football legend Pelé have taken to Instagram to post moving tributes and pictures of their father as they spend Christmas at his side at the Albert Einstein Jewish Hospital in São Paulo. “We continue to be here, in fight and

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Officials at NASA and Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, are working to decide how to bring home several people at the International Space Station after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft sprang a leak last week. None of the seven people currently on board the ISS — including three Roscosmos cosmonauts, three NASA astronauts

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN It was only a matter of time before human-caused climate change and pollution reached even the most isolated continent on the planet. As global temperature rises, Antarctica’s pristine landscape is already changing, and new research shows most of the region’s plant and animal species — including its iconic penguins — are

By Ashley Strickland and Jackie Wattles, CNN The International Space Station got its second solar power boost in a month as two NASA astronauts carried out a spacewalk to install a new solar panel. The event comes after a piece of wayward space garbage interfered with plans to carry out the spacewalk Wednesday. NASA was

By Danya Gainor, CNN The National Marine Aquarium, the largest display for sea life in the United Kingdom, has officially welcomed Heidi, an olive ridley turtle rescued in 2018 from the Maldives. Heidi had embarked on a 26-hour journey to the aquarium in Plymouth, England, at the start of November and has spent his time