In General Relativity, the flatspace Minkowski metric cannot be used to describe spacetime. In fact, the metric depends (in a very complicated way) on the exact distribution of mass and energy in its ...In General Relativity, the flatspace Minkowski metric cannot be used to describe spacetime. In fact, the metric depends (in a very complicated way) on the exact distribution of mass and energy in its vicinity. This metric is referred to as the Schwarzchild metric, and describes the shape of space near a spherical mass such as (approximately) the earth or the sun, as well as the space surrounding a black hole.
