In 1897 H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds. The Martians in the novel plan to annihilate humanity and “terraform” the Earth so that its climate becomes like that of Mars.
In 1897 H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds. The Martians in the novel plan to annihilate humanity and “terraform” the Earth so that its climate becomes like that of Mars. The book gave rise to a new literary genre—you could call it the “Mars attacks” genre—and the idle, esoteric discussions of professional astronomers suddenly became a matter of survival for the human race.
