Using the Moon to search for neutrinos

New Scientist: Researchers hunting for the elusive neutrino typically trek to Antarctica, the Mediterranean, and Lake Baikal. But a growing number of projects are looking for the most energetic neutrinos by aiming radio telescopes at the moon.

A radio telescope aimed at the edge of the moon could potentially find these brief bursts of energy. But identifying these signals will not be easy. Neutrino collisions at ultra-high energies are rare; astronomers might expect to see just a handful in a month. Radio telescopes are also bombarded by other signals, including a host of man-made interference, that must be excluded.

But the moon's sheer size may make up for such limitations. "Size matters in this game. You have to catch those rare beasts," says Heino Falcke of Radboud University in the Netherlands