Chondrules are silicate spheroids found in meteorites , serving as important fossil records of the early solar system . In order to form chondrules , chondrule precursors must be heated to temperatures much higher than the typical conditions in the current asteroid belt . One proposed mechanism for chondrule heating is the passage through bow shocks of highly eccentric planetesimals in the protoplanetary disk in the early solar system . However , it is difficult for planetesimals to gain and maintain such high eccentricities . In this paper , we present a new scenario in which planetesimals in the asteroid belt region are excited to high eccentricities by the Jovian sweeping secular resonance in a depleting disk , leading to efficient formation of chondrules . We study the orbital evolution of planetesimals in the disk using semi-analytic models and numerical simulations . We investigate the dependence of eccentricity excitation on the planetesimal ’ s size as well as the physical environment , and calculate the probability for chondrule formation . We find that 50 - 2000 ~ { } \mathrm { km } planetesimals can obtain eccentricities larger than 0.6 and cause effective chondrule heating . Most chondrules form in high velocity shocks , in low density gas , and in the inner disk . The fraction of chondrule precursors which become chondrules is about 4 - 9 \% between 1.5 - 3 ~ { } \mathrm { AU } . Our model implies that the disk depletion timescale is \tau _ { \mathrm { dep } } \approx 1 ~ { } \mathrm { Myr } , comparable to the age spread of chondrules ; and that Jupiter formed before chondrules , no more than 0.7 ~ { } \mathrm { Myr } after the formation of the CAIs .