As hinted at in the title, assuming the technology/means existed that could absorb energy fast enough, would it be possible to stop a star from going supernova, effectively “calming” it?
This is for a novel (not exactly a sci-fi one) but I’d like to keep in the realms of “technically possible”.
Edit. Thank you to everyone for providing answers and specific thanks to @Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com @radix@lemmy.world and @Deestan@lemmy.world for the for the further reading/watching materials that have inspired a narrative solution that is kinda hand-wave-y but should be good enough to hold up to scrutiny until the moment someone with a PhD (or good enough knowledge) takes a closer look at a fictional word with a soft magic system and smashes the big ol’ BS button which I think is about as much as fantasy novel writer can ask for.
The main reason why a star collapses is because it’s taking more energy to fuse elements than it gets from the fusion, this happens around the time the star starts fusing iron. Absorbing more energy from the Star during that phase would actually exacerbate the problem. You would need to find a way to inject more energy into the core, but not so much that it would exceed the gravitational pressure and cause the star to rip itself apart. It would be like trying to balance a bowling ball on a pin during an earthquake until the fuel ran out. And the fuel would run out very fast.
It would take Godlike levels of technology and it’s still unlikely to work, even with that level of tech.