[1][3] It is heavily obscured by interstellar matter due to its location close to the galactic plane of the Milky Way.

[7] NGC 6946 has also been classified as a double-barred spiral galaxy, with the inner, smaller bar presumably responsible for funneling gas into its center.

This includes the so-called 'Red Ellipse' along one of the northern arms that looks like a super-bubble or very large supernova remnant, and which may have been formed by an open cluster containing massive stars.

[12] This was once thought to be a young supergiant cluster, but in 2017 it was conjectured to be an interacting dwarf galaxy superimposed on NGC 6946.

Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the star did not survive, although there remains some infrared emission from its position.

[22] In May 2017, supernova SN 2017eaw was detected in the northwest region of the galaxy, and light curves obtained over the next 600 days showed that it was a Type II-P.[23] The progenitor was determined to have been a red supergiant, with a mass of around 15M☉.