Constraints on chondrule origins

Abstract

Abstract— Research on chondrules during the past decade and a half has produced a number of constraints on the processes that formed these enigmatic objects. Although some chondrules may have formed in exceptional ways, it now seems clear that the vast majority did not form by condensation or by any other process that resulted in an extended (>100 s) period of heating; viable models of chondrule formation must generate brief (1–10 s) “flash” heating events. Many chondrules were incompletely melted, indicating that the heat source was marginal; coarse‐grained rims are probably the result of heating by the same source that heated chondrules. Although some chondrules are enriched in refractories and poor in volatiles, most chondrules contain FeS in their interiors, implying that the last generation of chondrules formed after the local nebula had cooled below 650 K. The very small weight fraction of chondrules haying small (<50 μm in ordinary chondrites) radii requires either that (a) the formational process destroyed small chondrules by volatilizing them or efficiently recycling them into larger chondrules, or (b) that nebular size‐sorting occurred and the fine fraction is not well represented in our known set of chondrites.Our recent studies of compound chondrules show that about 60% are siblings that formed together in the same heating event, and about 40% are independents that originated in different events. Independent compound chondrules tend to have similar FeO/(FeO + MgO) ratios, a possible indication of a high degree of compositional homogeneity in nebular subrogions defined by location or time. About 8% of barred olivine chondrules are the primaries of independently formed compound chondrules, and have thus been subjected to at least two flash‐heating events. Allowance for observational biases suggests that a sizable fraction of chondrules have experienced two thermal events strong enough to produce major melting as well as many additional events that could produce minor melting, sintering, and crystal growth.