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.
This is going to depend on the specifics of your story, but a supernova happens when a star runs out of easily fused fuel (hydrogen, helium).
If you want to prevent the supernova entirely and return the star to “normal,” that means removing all the heavy elements from a stellar core and adding lighter elements. I’m no scientist (or author), but turning back the clock like that is beyond my imagination.
Absorbing the energy for use in other applications? Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, so…maybe? You can probably hand wave that way. It won’t be 100% efficient, and whatever tech that’s absorbing that energy has to be able to contain a star. This one has at least some hypothetical support: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
It reminds me of the Ringworld novels. I won’t rehash the entire plot, but basically an artificial structure is built that requires a material the author calls “scrith” that is essentially impossible with known physics, but a clever author can write around it well enough that it doesn’t get too much attention for its “magic” properties.