Asteroid Google Doodle Removed After Meteor Hits Russia

Google was planning to use an asteroid doodle today in honor of Asteroid 2012 DA14. But then a meteor struck Russia, injuring thousands, the company decided that it was best to remove their Google Doodle.

Asteroid 2014 DA14 will flyby the earth today and Google wanted to honor the occasion on their main page. After the disaster in Russia, however, the company decided it was a bad idea.

A Google spokesperson told ABC News:

“Out of respect for those injured in the extraordinary meteor shower in Russia earlier today, we have removed today’s doodle from the Google homepage. The doodle was created to mark Asteroid 2012 DA14 passing Earth.”

The Google Doodle featured the Google logo “running away” from a falling asteroid. The second G in the logo looks up to see an asteroid falling from the sky. The g runs away from the other letters and the asteroid shoots past the logo.

This is obviously referring to the fact that the asteroid will come extremely close to earth today. NASA says that there’s no chance that the asteroid will hit earth but it will come within about 17,000 miles of the earth.

The logo was removed from the search engine’s homepage but the company has left the logo in its archives.

Here’s the asteroid Google doodle.

Do you think Google made the right decision to remove the doodle?