What is the name of the 1915 theory that explains gravity as curved spacetime around black holes?

General relativity is the 1915 theory that explains gravity as curved spacetime around black holes.

Albert Einstein published the completed theory of general relativity in 1915. It replaced Newton’s description of gravity as a force acting across space with a geometric account: mass and energy curve spacetime, and objects follow paths determined by that curvature.

Black holes arise in general relativity when matter becomes compressed so strongly that an event horizon forms. The horizon is a causal boundary, not a physical surface. Once an object crosses it, every future-directed path leads inward in the classical description.

General relativity also predicts gravitational waves, the bending of light, gravitational time dilation, and the precession of Mercury’s orbit. It is extremely successful on large scales, but it is not yet reconciled with quantum mechanics. The singularity inside an idealized black hole signals that general relativity alone is incomplete under extreme conditions.