A puddle of oil and coolant under my lift made a perfect galaxy

I was cleaning up a spill from a busted radiator hose yesterday. The mix of green coolant and black oil had dripped into a shallow puddle on the concrete. When I went to wipe it, I saw it. The colors swirled together, with the oil making these dark, cloudy shapes and the coolant forming little bright green specks all through it. It looked exactly like one of those photos from the Hubble telescope, a tiny galaxy on my shop floor. I grabbed my phone and took a picture before I mopped it up. I've seen a thousand spills, but never one that looked like art. It made me start looking at other messes differently. Has anyone else found a random spill or stain that looked like something else?

2 comments

2 Comments

riley9562mo ago

That Hubble telescope look is a classic sign of a blown head gasket.

reese_lane292mo ago

Yeah, that galaxy look is weirdly common. @riley956 is right, it's a bad sign for the engine, but it's a good look for the floor. I had the same thing happen with some spilled power steering fluid and brake dust last month. The red fluid pooled and the gray dust settled on top in these little clusters, just like a photo of a nebula. Stared at it for a solid minute before I cleaned it. Makes you wonder what else we're wiping up without really seeing.