Compositon of stars?

Question

Albali

Answer 1

The sun is 70% hydrogen, 28% helium, 2% stuff heavier than helium... by mass. It's pretty typical of Population 1 main sequence stars near the middle of their lives.

Answer 2

Actually, arbiter007, that's backwards.

The first stars that formed in the universe would have only formed from the products of the Big Bang, hydrogen and helium. When these stars died (probably by supernovae), the products of their nuclear fusion would have been left in the interstellar medium. Then the second generation of stars would have more of the heavy elements to start. And so on through the generations of the stars. So . . .
The youngest stars (those that formed most recently) have the most 'metals' (what astronomers call elements heavier than helium!). And the oldest stars have the fewest metals.

The composition of the sun is 71% hydrogen, 21% helium, 1% oxygen, 0.5% carbon, and even smaller traces of everything else (see source below). Old stars will have even smaller fractions of the metals, as little as 10,000 times less than the sun!

Answer 3

Only relatively young stars have only helium, lithium, and hydrogen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars

Older stars contain heavier atoms; all the elements in the periodic table had to have come from older stars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf

Answer 4

Hydrogen
Helium
Traces of heavier elements

Answer 5

Dude are u high?