Details
The external gravitational potential of a spherically symmetric body of mass M is given by the formula:
A plot of this function in two dimensions is shown in the figure. This plot has been completed with an interior potential proportional to |x|2, corresponding to an object of uniform density, but this interior potential is generally irrelevant since the orbit of a test particle cannot intersect the body.
The potential function has a hyperbolic cross section; the sudden dip in the center is the origin of the name "gravity well." A black hole would not have this "closing" dip.
Read more about this topic: Gravity Well
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