The Taurus Molecular Cloud in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull) lies about 450 light-years from Earth. A new image from the APEX (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment) telescope in Chile shows a sinuous filament of cosmic dust more than ten light-years long. In it, newborn stars are hidden and dense clouds of gas are on the verge of collapsing to form yet more stars. The cosmic dust grains are so cold that observations at wavelengths of around one millimetre are needed to detect their faint glow.