How much energy does a super nova generate? For a scene in a SciFi book, I want to know: Is it possible to estimate how much energy per m² an object would receive that hides behind an in-system planet when the sun goes nova?
 A: Is it possible to estimate? Yes. I'll give it a quick try. But the details of whether the planet will be incinerated and so on will make the reality much more complicated.
As a ballpark, I think supernovae release about $10^{53}$ erg of energy. Spread over a sphere of, say, 1 AU gives $3.55\times10^{22}$J.m$^{-2}$. This energy isn't all released in one go and I don't know how much is radiative or kinetic. If its released over, say, 20 days, that gives $2.06\times10^{16}$W.m$^{-2}$  For comparison, the Sun emits 1368 W.m$^{-2}$, or 15 trillion times less. 
The timescale is roughly the time it takes for observed supernova luminosities to rise to a peak but much shorter timescales might be relevant. About 1% of that energy is released in a few seconds in a neutrino burst, but they don't interact much. Also, 1 AU is pretty arbitrary. A star that undergoes core-collapse must be bigger than the Sun, so its habitable zone would be much further away. 100 AU might be just as reasonable and reduce the energy flux by a factor of 100$^2$.
To estimate further, you could work out how much energy your planet would absorb based on its cross-section and compare that to its gravitational binding energy to get a rough guess about whether it would survive the blast. Hope this helps though.
A: Supernovae can release several times 10^44 J of energy. This has resulted in the adoption of the foe (10^44 J) as the standard unit of energy in the study of supernovae.
The Foe is a unit of energy equal to 10^44 joules.
To measure the vast amounts of energy that produces a supernova, the scientists used a unit of energy occasionally called foe was an acronym for Fifty One Ergs or 10^51 ergs (erg in English). This unit of measurement was ideal for having the energy of these phenomena as a typical supernova emits about one foe of observable energy (visible light).
By comparison the Sun throughout its entire life has given just 1.2 foe. Well, assuming constant luminosity throughout his life 3.827 × 10^26 W × 10^10 years ≈ 1.2 foe. (taken wikki)
i hope i serve you. 
A: Talking to an astronomer, he came up with a good suggestion: Google for "supernova simulation". There are a couple on Youtube. And there are also many papers.
