The shape of poor groups of galaxies

We estimate the distribution of intrinsic shapes of UZC-SSRS2 groups of galaxies from the distribution of their apparent shapes. We measure the projected group axial ratio using the moments of their discrete galaxy distribution. Then using the non-parametric kernel method to estimate the smooth apparent axial ratio distribution we numerically invert a set of integral equations to recover the corresponding intrinsic distribution under the assumption that groups are either oblate or prolate spheroids. We find that the prolate spheroidal model fits very well the UZC-SSRS2 group distribution with a ¯ ¯