What is the chemical composition of white dwarfs? What are they made of?
Because white dwarfs are the remnant cores of normal stars, they are primarily made of the “waste” products of the nuclear fusion reactions that made them shine before they turned into white dwarfs. These “waste” products are primarily carbon and oxygen, with traces of other elements. The outer part of a white dwarf contains helium and hydrogen. It is the tremendous gravitational force associated with these dense stars that stratifies the material within them, with the heaviest elements residing at the deepest depths in the star. The atmospheres of white dwarfs are only about ten meters thick.
