In physics, gravitational potential is the measure of potential energy an object possesses due to its position in a gravitational field. The gravitational potential of an object of mass m relative to a point mass M is

where G is the universal gravitational constant and r is the distance between the centers of the two objects.

If the structure of an object is spherically symmetrical, e.g. the Earth, then the potential is the same as that of a point object having the same mass.