Artwork illustrating the concept of warped spacetime. The fabric of spacetime is represented as a grid in which objects of increasing mass produce increasingly large distortions. The idea that space is distorted by gravity is a consequence of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Spacetime is likened to a thin rubber sheet on which objects of varying mass produce depressions. According to Einstein, gravity is not a force; bodies do not have a pulling effect, but instead have a curving effect on the structure of spacetime around them. The closer to a body, the greater the curvature. A smaller object is not pulled toward a larger one, but instead is moving in the 'depression' caused by the larger one; this being the gravitational field of a body. This image depicts the deep well of a large red star, and the shallower well, or gravitational field, of an orbiting white dwarf star.