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abstract
The OB association LH72 occupies a unique position in the LMC, lying at the geometrical center of the superbubble Shapley III. We have obtained IUE spectra of its brightest stars and have combined these with broad-band optical photometry to derive spectral types, effective temperatures, bolometric luminosities and reddenings. Spectral types range from O6 V to B0 I and the reddenings are well fit by the Fitzpatrick reddening curve. The association is very young, only $\sim$2 million years old, much too young to have been involved in the event or events that formed the superbubble. It seems to represent a second epoch of star formation in this region, occurring some hundreds of millions of years after the event that cleaned the area of most of its gas, stopping star formation in the central region and precipitating star formation in the enhanced density gas of the giant ring.
