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.

周四澳大利亞官方稱，在南印度洋發現的疑似碎片可能是馬航失聯客機MH370的殘骸。這一發現給全球空前大搜索帶來突破性希望。

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.

澳大利亞海洋安全局應急總指揮約翰·楊說，兩塊物件不是很清楚，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.

他補充道，看上去兩塊物件好像在澳大利亞2500平方公里的西南海域內上下浮動，被海浪沖刷。

"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.

曾經共同領導2009年法航447航班搜尋的大衛·加洛說，“考慮到馬航失聯客機機型龐大，這些疑似碎片有可能是機尾部分�！� 法航447在2009年墜落在大西洋。

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

失聯馬航的機型為波音777，這種機型的尾部高度為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客機連同機上239人于3月8日消失在東南亞上空，失聯13日以來，澳大利亞今日發布的疑似殘骸照片無疑給大規模的搜尋工作帶來希望。

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.

然而澳大利亞海洋局提示道，這些圖像也可能與失聯馬航無關。但一位航空分析師說，在未能確定事實之前，澳大利亞首相托尼·阿博特是不會對堪培拉議院宣布這一發現的。

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：新發現的衛星圖正在調查中，是否與失聯的馬航客機有關有待進一步確認。