The M51 black hole is located at the center of the Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51), a spiral galaxy about 31 million light-years away. It is a supermassive black hole, likely millions of times the mass of the Sun, residing in the galaxy’s core. Astronomers study it using X-ray and radio observations, often with telescopes like Chandra and Hubble, to understand how it feeds on surrounding gas and dust. In 2021, scientists discovered a strange X-ray burst near M51, possibly the first evidence of a planet orbiting a black hole, though this is still under investigation. M51 is often used as a model to study black hole-galaxy interactions due to its bright structure and face-on orientation.