system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How “sharp” is a black hole’s event horizon? If I flew past a black hole at a relativistic speed, and accidentally “clipped” the event horizon with a single molecule of my ship, would that molecule of spaceship break off and be sucked into the singularity?
gpt
There is no possible free-fall trajectory that would do this. If you get closer than the photon sphere (well outside the event horizon) then every attempt to orbit the black hole ends up inside the black hole. You can get closer and still get away if you use your impossibly strong thrusters. If you get closer and closer to the event horizon the thrust you need goes "to infinity", and your ship will break apart at some point. How exactly it breaks apart depends on details of the ship, but everything that goes beyond the event horizon will certainly fall in.