Asteroid Passes by Safely after Russia Meteorite Hits Earth, Watch LIVE STREAM, VIDEO: NASA Space Feed Shows Asteroid 2012 DA14 Flyby

According to several recent reports, an asteroid passed relatively close to Earth's atmosphere around 2:24 p.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. As scientists predicted all week, Asteroid 2012 DA14 did not hit the planet's surface. Continue reading on to check out NASA's live video feed from the Gingin Observatory in Australia as the asteroid (approximately 45 meters in size) flies over the sky in a white streak of celestial wonder. Earlier on Friday, a smaller meteorite hit Russia, causing an explosion that injured over 1,000 people.

According to NASA, the large asteroid never got closer than 17,100 miles to Earth's surface. Stargazers in Australia, Asia, and Eastern Europe were abel to spot the asteroid with the aid of a telescope or binoculars.

Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said during a recent Asteroid 2012 DA14 press briefing, “There are lots of asteroids that we’re watching that we haven’t yet ruled out an Earth impact (for), but all of them have an impact probability that is very, very low."

According to NASA's Near-Earth Object team member Paul Chodas, scientists are currently studying this asteroid so extensively that they can already predict its path for most of the 21st century.

Yeomans points out that an object the size of Asteroid 2012 DA14 appears to hit Earth approximately once every 1,200 years. If this asteroid were to have hit Earth (which was basically impossible) it would have done so with the energy of about 2.4 megatons of TNT.

A different and unrelated smaller meteorite (approximately 15 meters and 11-ton) entered the Earth's atmosphere over Russia earlier on Friday. The explosion injured about 1,000 people. NASA scientists claim that the two asteroids passing over Earth on the same day was pure coincidence. Read more on the Russia meteorite tragedy here.