Chondrules contain ferromagnetic minerals that may retain a record of the magnetic field environments in which they cooled. Paleomagnetic experiments on separated chondrules can potentially reveal the presence of remanent magnetization from the time of chondrule formation. The existence of such a magnetization places quantitative bounds on the frequency of interchondrule collisions, while the intensity of magnetization may be used to infer the strength of nebular magnetic fields and thereby constrain the mechanism of chondrule formation. Recent advances in laboratory instrumentation and techniques have permitted the isolation of nebular remanent magnetization in chondrules, providing the potential basis to probe the formation environments of chondrules from a range of chondrite classes.

We review recent chondrule oxygen isotope studies by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). We discuss primary O-isotope fractionation characteristics of chondrule phases, and how they are used to garner information related to the physicochemical environment from which they formed. This includes high temperature gas–melt interactions, sampling of common precursors among different chondrite types, and how precursor compositions influenced redox states during chondrule formation. We also explore how primary O-isotope ratios of chondrule phases are disturbed by secondary alteration.