An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

A thin, flat cake of batter fried on both sides on a griddle or in a frying pan (Dictionary.com).

From M.E., from pan "a usually broad, shallow, and open container for domestic use, as for cooking;" O.E. panne + cake, from M.E., from O.N. kaka "cake," cognate with M.E. kechel "little cake;" G. Kuchen;

Lavâš "a sort of thin flattened bread."

A model of galaxy formation in which regions of primordial gas as massive as clusters of galaxies began to collapse into thin sheets (pancakes). Within the pancakes, smaller regions of gas later collapsed to form individual galaxies.

→ pancake; → model.

A star strongly compressed due to the → tidal force of a → massive black hole. The intense → gravity of the → black hole pulls harder on the nearest part of the star, creating an imbalance. When the star penetrates the → tidal radius, first it becomes cigar-shaped, then the squeezing of the tidal forces flattens the star in its orbital plane to the shape of a → pancake. Next the star rebounds, and as it leaves the tidal radius, it starts to expand. A little further on its orbit the star finally breaks up into gas fragments. This flattening would increase the → density and → temperature inside the star enough to trigger intense nuclear reactions that would tear it apart (Brassart & J.-P. Luminet, 2008, Astron. Astrophys. 481, 259).

→ pancake; → star.