Two objects spotted in the southern Indian Ocean may be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian authorities said Thursday, fueling hopes of a breakthrough in an international search of unprecedented scale.

周四澳大利亚官方称，在南印度洋发现的疑似碎片可能是马航失联客机MH370的残骸。这一发现给全球空前大搜索带来突破性希望。

The objects are indistinct but of "reasonable size," with the largest about 24 meters (79 feet) across, said John Young, general manager of emergency response for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

澳大利亚海洋安全局应急总指挥约翰·杨说，两块物件不是很清楚，但尺寸十分吻合。

They appear to be "awash with water and bobbing up and down" in an area 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) southwest of Australia's west coast, he said.

他补充道，看上去两块物件好像在澳大利亚2500平方公里的西南海域内上下浮动，被海浪冲刷。

"If that piece of the plane is that big, maybe it's the tail section" said David Gallo, one of the leader of the search for Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

曾经共同领导2009年法航447航班搜寻的大卫·加洛说，“考虑到马航失联客机机型庞大，这些疑似碎片有可能是机尾部分。” 法航447在2009年坠落在大西洋。

The tail height of a Boeing 777, the model of the missing Malaysian plane, is 60 feet.

失联马航的机型为波音777，这种机型的尾部高度为60英尺。

Flight 370 vanished over Southeast Asia on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew aboard, and the announcement raised the prospect of finding parts of the plane amid a huge search that is now in its 13th day.

MH370客机连同机上239人于3月8日消失在东南亚上空，失联13日以来，澳大利亚今日发布的疑似残骸照片无疑给大规模的搜寻工作带来希望。

The Australian maritime agency warned the images may not be related to the aircraft, but one aviation analyst said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott likely would not have announced the discovery to the House of Representatives in Canberra without being reasonably sure of their find.

然而澳大利亚海洋局提示道，这些图像也可能与失联马航无关。但一位航空分析师说，在未能确定事实之前，澳大利亚首相托尼·阿博特是不会对堪培拉议院宣布这一发现的。

Officials cautioned that there were no guarantees that the objects now being investigated would prove to be from the missing plane.

官方警示：新发现的卫星图正在调查中，是否与失联的马航客机有关有待进一步确认。