P1: There are gas and dust in the space between stars.
P2: not all the dust is spread out uniformly. Some dusts concentrate into denser clumps. The dense concentration of dust blocks out virtually all the light from more distant stars, so the cloud appears as a dark silhouette.
P3: But scientists still are able to deduce a lot about them from their sizes and shapes, and even their composition.
P4: in 1920s, RT discovered that stars lying behind interstellar dust not only appear dimmer, but are also slightly redder. He concluded that the dust grains were absorbing more of the shoerter wavelength (blue light) than the longer(red) wavelength.
P5: the discovery tells us the size of the dust grains. They must be smaller than the wavelength of the red light, because the dust has little effect on those wavelength. But the grains must be comparable in size to the wavelength of blue light.
Author's opinion: introduced the gas and dust between stars and point out scientists can deduce characteristics about the dust and gas. Give an example of how a scientist deduce the size of the dusts by the appearance of the stars lying behind interstellar dust.