In our physics problems so far, we’ve kept the objects close to the earth so that the acceleration due to gravity g remains constant, and we defined the potential energy of an object on the surface of the earth to be zero. What if we look up and see three stars in a system and want to find out the gravitational potential energy of the system?

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Globular clusters have a HUGE amount of gravitational potential energy.
 
 
 
This image above is known as Messier 13 (M13) or NGC 6205, also called the Hercules Globular Cluster, is a home to 300,000 stars in the constellation of Hercules. Can you start to see how there’s an enormous amount of gravitational potential energy in the universe?

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