This is a region in Polaris, 490 light-years away, imaged by ESA’s Herschel space observatory in 2011 (shown as a colour composite here). It shows tangled interstellar filaments of dust and gas. Such filaments can stretch for tens of light-years through space and can precede the onset of star formation, with newborn stars often found in the densest parts. See http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2017/01/Interstellar_filaments_in_Polaris
