Using EUV Observations of Interacting Binary Laboratories To Understand Astrophysical Plasmas and Mass Accretion

Mass accretion and the formation of plasma are ubiquitous in astronomy. EUV observations provide a powerful tool to probe these phenomena and provide us with observational results unobtainable in Earthly laboratories. Studies of such physical conditions allow us to better understand the physics of extreme environments such as high magnetic fields (1-250 MG) and high temperatures (up to 10 million K) and the effects of EUV sources (including our own sun) on the ISM and the formation of life. This talk will review recent observations of interacting binaries made in the EUV by the satellite observatories ROSAT and EUVE and will concentrate on spectroscopy. We will discuss the new discoveries made by these satellites and the short-comings of the data obtained. In particular, the great need for higher S/N spectroscopy will be addressed. Funding for this work has been provided by NASA Astrophysics programs and the EUVE satellite project.