A New Zealand military plane found objects floating in the Indian Ocean that could be from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

Authorities say a ship will reach the search area by Saturday to investigate the objects and determine if they are, in fact, from the missing Boeing 777.

The discovery comes hours after the search area was shifted about 700 miles north on Friday due to a "credible lead." Radar analysis showed that the plane was traveling faster than previously thought, thus using more fuel.

The search area for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 shifted north. Teams will be looking in the area denoted with the yellow box. Image: Australian Maritime Safety Authority

Earlier this week, satellites from Japan and Thailand delivered images of hundreds of objects that could be a possible debris field in the southern Indian Ocean. Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says "this new search area could still be consistent with the potential objects identified by various satellite images."

In this imagery taken by the Thaichote satellite on March 24, 2014 and released March 27, 2014 by Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), a part of about 300 objects floating in the Indian Ocean near the search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner are shown. Image: Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency/Associated Press

The new search area is 80% smaller than the old one — 123,167 square miles — and it's about 1,150 miles from Perth, Australia. This part of the Indian Ocean is particularly tough to search because it is a hub for massive waves and winds that often exceed hurricane force. Search operations were suspended some of this week due to weather conditions that made for poor visibility. The sea depths in this updated search area range from 6,560 feet to about 13,000 feet.

Australian authorities, however, said on Friday that the weather conditions have improved, and 10 new aircraft are active in today's search.

While Hussein says weather will be favorable this weekend for search efforts, Malaysia's Civil Aviation chief said it remains on of the biggest challenges in the search.

The range of potential objects & the difficulty in re-identifying them shows just how complex this investigation is #MH370 @HishammuddinH2O — H2O Comms (@H2OComms) March 28, 2014