The areas around seven highly inclined spiral galaxies have been searched for possible companions, which were classified according to their compactness and shape. Compact spherical galaxies were found preferentially along the major-axis direction of the central spirals, which may indicate real physical associations. A study of the relative orientations of the compact galaxies cataloged by Zwicky and bright nearby galaxies indicates a similar effect.
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Valtonen et al. (1978) studied this question.