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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 August 2017
Using new (Cycle 9) HST / WFPC2 data, we have studied a peculiar star forming region in the nearby Sc-type spiral NGC 6946. The region has a bubble-like shape and a diameter of about 600 pc. Near the centre is an extremely luminous young globular cluster with MV = −13.2 mag. The cluster has a compact core with a core radius of about 1.3 pc but is surrounded by an extended halo with a power-law luminosity profile similar to that observed for young LMC clusters. From Keck / HIRES high-dispersion spectroscopy we measure a velocity dispersion of 10 km s−1, leading to a dynamical mass estimate of about 1.7 × 106 solar masses. The dynamical mass estimate is comparable to the expectation from population synthesis modelling under the assumption of a Salpeter IMF extending down to 0.1 M⊙.