Active Capture of Low-Energy Volatiles: Bringing Back Gases from a Cometary Encounter

There has been some evidence that fresh vacuum-deposited films contain chemically-active sites, and acquire surface atoms by processes more effective than Van der Waals forces, referred to as anomalous adsorption of Xe. If either this or another process that is less important at lower temperatures (rendering extrapolation from existing inappropriate) holds true, then the capture of cometary volatiles on a codeposited metal film might be possible.