The planet mars, i scarcely need remind the reader, revolves about the sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles, and the light and heat it receives from the sun is barely half of that received by this world. it must be, if the nebular hypothesis has any truth, older than our world; and long before this earth ceased to be molten, life upon its surface must have begun its course. the fact that it is scarcely one seventh of the volume of the earth must have accelerated its cooling to the temperature at which life could begin. h. g. wells, the war of the worlds, 1898 why does wells include this type of passage? a. to teach the reader important scientific facts that will the reader understand the story b. to show the reader the martians' point of view, which allows the reader to feel sorry for the aliens c. to confuse the reader so that the reader can understand the chaos that the characters are experiencing d. to show that the narrator is well educated, which adds a sense of credibility to the story