What are stars made of?
The majority of stars are remarkably similar in composition, having formed from the clouds of interstellar gas distributed throughout the galaxies. These clouds generally consist of the following materials:
- Hydrogen: 72-75%
- Helium: 23-26%
- All Other Elements: < 2%
The amounts of "other elements" can vary widely between stars, and are very sensitive to the local conditions in which the star was born.
More exotic stellar objects such as white dwarfs and neutron stars — representing the last stages of a star's life — have very different compositions. White dwarfs consist mostly of charged atoms of carbon and oxygen — called ions — in a seething cauldron of electrons, while neutron stars — their incredible masses crushing electrons and protons together — are composed primarily of a sea of superfluid, superconducting neutrons.
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