Francis is known for his out-of-the-blue calls. But this one has been in the Earth-to-space pipeline for a while.

“What is blessing? Who can bless? Can God bless through a robot?”

"Pray for good weather," he said to laughs. "But also pray for what God wants you to learn from the experience."

Catholic schools and parishes are gearing up to host solar eclipse events.

On Aug. 21, there will be a total solar eclipse and its path will fall across the entire continental United States.

On June 19, NASA announced that its Kepler space telescope team had identified 219 new planet candidates.