History Main / StarKilling

It is also theorized that there are additives that will catalyze proton decay or otherwise work faster in same way.[[note]]i.e. slower in the longer term[[/note]] And, if you talk about a civilization able to manipulate black holes, then by launching a small one into a star it can create an unusual object: a black hole in a dense cocoon of plasma, that will glow incredibly hot.

See also TheStarsAreGoingOut, which is about what happens when someone on Earth ''watches'' stars getting killed. Compare EarthShatteringKaboom, PlanetDestroyer and DetonationMoon. Not to be confused with RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun, though this trope may be a possible topic for that one.

Interesting: even though immediate aging of a star is extremely unlikely, it is theoretically possible to increase the speed of a normal star's aging. Usually, most matter within a star is a hydrogen/helium mixture, and most of the star's life cycle it fuses hydrogen into helium. However, a tiny part of the star's mass consists of carbon-nitrogen-oxygen, which transform into each other through the CNO cycle, catalyzing (i.e. accelerating) the burning of hydrogen. So, dump enough carbon or nitrogen[[note]]Not ordinary oxygen. Any time O16 appears in its ground state, that particular participant in the CNO cycle ends.[[/note]] into an average star[[note]]The CNO cycle won't run at all if the star isn't massive enough to trigger catalyzed fusion in its core. It takes at least 1.3 solar masses for the CNO cycle to become its dominant energy source. The prime candidates for adding carbon or nitrogen would be massive, old stars that formed before the interstellar medium became enriched with heavy elements.[[/note]] and it probably will age faster AND burn hotter.[[note]]That may be the natural conclusion, but in RealLife, [[RealityIsUnrealistic the opposite would happen]]. Upon the initial boost in fusion, the star would expand, slowing down the fusion reaction. Gravity would be weaker as well. A new stable equilibrium [[https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003SoPh..212....3S/abstract estimated to be reached millions of years later]] would be reached where fusion would occur at the slower rate sufficient to balance the weaker gravity. Stellar fusion would slow down. Of course, while the star may not explode and incinerate its planets, the effects of that in the climate of life-bearing ones orbiting it, not to mention in something as fragile at such scales as a developed biosphere, is another topic[[/note]] The effect won't be immediate, though. The mixing of star matter is slow, and distribution of additions will take many years, maybe even ages.

In the middle range of the scale, the sun could be "poisoned", such that it ages several billion years. This is frequently done by applying enough firepower to the sun to cause it to go supernova, but the other way--depleting the sun's hydrogen content and making it a cold dwarf star, or making it impossible for the sun to conduct hydrogen fusion--is also possible.