Structure of the Universe

Ya.B.Zel'dovich was one of the first scientists to recognize that the early Universe could be useful in research. In 1970 the study of large scale structure of the Universe resulted in his proposal of - pancake theory. This showed that for an ellipsoid of gas on a supergalactic scale, an approximation can model the collapse to an oblate or pancake form similar to filamentary structure seen in distribution of galaxies.

Ya. B. Zel'dovich was a leading Soviet physicist and one of the first scientists to recognize that the early universe could be useful in research and the understanding of high energy physics. He worked on the dynamics of neutron emission during formation of black holes, accretion onto black holes and neutron stars, formation of galaxies and clusters and the large scale structure of the universe.