Gravitational Potential

NCERT Class 11, Chapter 8 (Gravitation) defines gravitational potential at a point as the work done per unit mass by an external agent in bringing a small test mass from \infty to that point, given by $V=-\frac{GM}{r}$. The potential is always negative because gravity is attractive, and it grows more negative, larger in magnitude, as one moves closer to the source mass. When a mass actually moves from \infty, where $V=0$, toward a point of negative potential, the gravitational field does positive work on it, which means energy is released rather than supplied by an external agent. Hence the correct statement is that energy is released as a mass approaches from \infty. The option about an external agent doing work is wrong because here gravity itself does the work. The claim that the field is zero contradicts a varying potential, since the field equals the negative gradient of potential. The repulsion option is impossible because gravity is always attractive. As a plausibility check, an object dropped toward a mass speeds up and gains kinetic energy, exactly the released energy this negative, deepening potential represents.