How to blow up a star by accident?

I have this race of space-dwarves and I need to make them homeless due to technological hubris of some kind: for plot reasons.

I think that if they were to attempt to build some kind of Dyson sphere and then it collapsed into the sun it could add enough mass to the sun to make it go nova or fizzle out or at least dramatically shorten the lifespan. Especially if the main elemental component of the Sphere was Iron, which can't be fused for energy.

• Is this plausible?
• How massive would the sphere-in-progress have to be to create a problem?
• What would happen to the star?

Please bear in mind when answering

• The dwarves in this setting are VERY co-operative
• They follow the maxim: "If Brute Force isn't working, you're not using enough of it!".
• Resources aren't a problem. -They have some sort of super-steel that is strong enough to be used in the construction of a Dyson Sphere, but if it would cause a more interesting result, then non-iron-based substances will be considered.

posted over 7 years ago

Douglas‭

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