A Chinese satellite has spotted a large object floating in the South Indian Ocean.

China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced on Saturday that its high-definition earth observation satellite "Gaofen-1" has spotted a floating object 75 miles southwest of the current search area off the coast of Australia.

The object, which was spotted at 12 p.m. local time on Tuesday, is 74 feet by 43 feet — just 5 feet shy of the larger of the two objects at the center of Australia's search and recovery efforts.

Image: sastind.gov.cn

The news was announced by Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's acting Minister of Transport, halfway through his Saturday press briefing when he was handed a note by the Chinese ambassador. Hussein said more information will come soon.

The Australian authorities, however, said they have plotted the position of the object, and "it falls within Saturday’s search area." It was not sighted, and operations have been suspended for the night. A civil aircraft tasked by the Australians did report seeing a number of small objects with the naked eye, including a wooden pallet. A Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion aircraft "with specialist electro-optic observation equipment" was sent to the location on Saturday and reported seeing clumps of seaweed, officials said.

Still, Mr. Hussein said he is hopeful the lead will produce results.

Trully a global effort - unprecedented. Let us pray this time lead will produce results n some certainty n closure 4 d families of #MH370.

— Hishammuddin Hussein (@HishammuddinH2O) March 22, 2014

It has been more than two weeks since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing after taking off from Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur International Airport with 239 people on board. There have been a number of objects sightings since then, but none have turned out to be pieces of the missing jetliner.

It is unclear whether the latest object is one of the two already spotted by a U.S. satellite, and announced by the Australian officials leading the search in the South Indian Ocean.

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