Because of the density of the asteroids (0.8 g/cm³) is less than water and about one third that of rock, the team of researchers led by F. Marchis suggest that the Patroclus system, previously thought to be a pair of rocky asteroids, is more similar to a comet in make up. It is thought that many Trojan asteroids are in fact small planetesimals captured in the Lagrange point of Jupiter-Sun system during the farther migration of the giant planets, 3.9 billion years ago. This scenario was suggested by A. Morbidelli and colleagues in a series of articles published in May 2005 in "Nature" journal.