Today, in celebration of asteroid 2012 DA14’s near miss of Earth, Google planned to run a new Doodle on its homepage. In fact, they did run it for a short time. But if you visit the Google homepage right now you won’t see any asteroid-related Doodle.

That’s because Google removed it.

And yes, it’s for the reason you suspect. Google took down the animated Doodle out of respect for those injured in Russia by that huge meteor shower. Reports indicate that over 500 people were injured as a result of the shower – most from broken glass and other parts of structures ripped apart by the meteorites. Google confirmed this to 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.

So, here’s the Doodle you weren’t supposed to see. It will live on forever here.

[via SearchEngineLand]