article_snippet: Astrophysicists say this lower pressure - 507 gigapascals (GPa) compared to 887 GPa - was easily achieved during the latter stages of Earth's formation. '
article_snippet: The researchers created a target - consisting of an iron plate 0.008in (5mm) square and 200 microns thick - against which The researchers launched aluminum flyer plates travelling up to 16 miles (25km) per second.
article_snippet: At this impact pressure, the powerful shock waves created in the iron cause the powerful shock waves created in the iron to compress, heat up and vapourise.
article_snippet: But with our experiments, our showed that it's very easy to impact-vapourise iron.'
article_snippet: Earth is thought to have been pummelled by asteroids during the Late Heavy Bombardment period, 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago.