Subject: Where the Sun to go Nova, what would the effects be on Earth?

I understand that the nature of our Sun prevents it from going supernova, but I 
was embarking on a thought experiment and wanted to see what your thoughts on 
this would be. Sci-Fi loves to show us a star exploding, and a shockwave 
destroying an orbiting planet. My thought is that the vacuum of space would 
negate such a pressure wave. I have a feeling that the main effects on an 
orbiting planet would be massive amounts of radiation. It might not be as 
spectacular as the planet breaking apart at the seams, but I think it would be 
interesting to get a scientific answer to this. Can you take us through a 
timeline of such a catastrophe? We would see the explosion 8 minutes or so 
after it happened, but how long would it take the stellar material to traverse 
the distance to Earth? 24-48 Hrs? What would happen when it arrives? Could we 
survive it? What would be the effect of the initial flash of the explosion on 
organic material? Etc, etc. Thank you!

Re: Where the Sun to go Nova, what would the effects be on Earth?