ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Zeldovich spontaneous wave

Okay kiddo, let's talk about something called the Zeldovich spontaneous wave. Imagine you're at the beach, and the waves come crashing in. Well, just like those waves, there are also waves in things called fluids - things like water, air, or even hot gases.

Now, imagine there's a special kind of wave that can happen all on its own, without any help from anything else. That's called a "spontaneous" wave. And that's what we're talking about here - the Zeldovich spontaneous wave.

This kind of wave was named after a smart man named Yakov Zeldovich, who figured out why these waves can just happen by themselves. You see, everything in the world is made up of tiny things called particles, which are so small you can't even see them with your eyes! When those particles move around, sometimes they can catch on to each other and start a wave all on their own. That's what the Zeldovich spontaneous wave is all about - particles making their own waves without any help.

People study these waves because they can actually tell us a lot about things like how hot gases behave, or how big stars form. But even though they might seem complicated, remember - just like the waves at the beach, they're just particles moving around and making a fuss!