Einstein is famous for his General Theory of Relativity (GRT), because his gravity is only interpreted as the curvature of space-time. This is much more vivid for us than Newton's gravity with mass attraction proportional to 1/r² and a gravitational constant G. But did Einstein really contribute to the elucidation of gravity here?
His intuition has interpreted free fall as a suspension of gravity and the light beam between two people in free fall calculates the time dilation. Thus, in the stationary case with v<<c, the gravitational constant G has now become a measure of time dilation. Einstein here takes over the constant G from Newton, who calculated the gravitational constant from the planetary orbits. But what produces the value of the constant G ? Neither Newton nor Einstein tells us this. Only the proportionality of G is used instead of the mass now to the time dilation.
Einstein also described this in letters to other physicists in such a way that the curvature of space-time is an interpretation.
However, it should be emphasized that in borderline cases of a photon with the speed of light or enormous masses, the GRT also bends space, so that Einstein can explain the observations on light deflection and black holes.
Inside the black hole Einstein has nothing new to explain, because the derivation of the constant G is still missing. We are still ooking for an quantum gravity theory.
Today the numerical solution of Einstein's differential equations in Riemann space for two masses of similar size provides gravitational waves as a result for energy conservation for nearly stable orbits. The the limit of gravity speed same as lightspeed is the reason.
Thus Einstein comes really closer to the nature of gravity than Newton. The interpreted very very tiny curvature of space-time in general can also be the course of the field line of a gravitational field.
Than only the movement of the masses in the gravitational field can generate gravitational waves, which in the Standard Model always require an exchange particle. The gravitational constant G can then be determined from a field theory. 100 years after the development of General Relativity, we are living in an exciting time, since gravitational waves also influence all calculations on dark energy. The orbits of large bodies may be larger over time due to gravitational waves, similar to what dark energy does.
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