SYDNEY - The Australian-led search 2500km southwest of Perth has finished for the night without finding any debris from MH370, nor the objects that appeared in the satellite images revealed on Thursday.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority announced just before midnight on Thursday, eastern daylight time, that four surveillance planes - from Australia, the United States and New Zealand - had covered an area of 23,000 square kilometres.

The search will resume on Friday morning, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has explained in a statement why the authorities were acting on the satellite images only now, though they were taken on Sunday.

"Due to the volume of imagery being searched, and the detailed process of analysis that followed, the information was brought to the attention of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on Thursday morning," it said.