Which cosmic objects can produce high-energy gamma rays?

High-energy gamma rays are produced by several violent and energetic astronomical objects. These sources include:

• Pulsars: These rapidly spinning neutron stars can emit gamma radiation, with some objects being "radio-quiet" and detectable only at X-ray or gamma-ray wavelengths.12
• Supernova remnants: The shock waves within these nebulae accelerate particles to high energies, creating filaments that emit gamma-ray photons.3
• Active galactic nuclei: These regions at the centers of galaxies, which include quasars, produce prodigious amounts of energy, including gamma radiation, as matter accretes onto a supermassive black hole.4
• Gamma-ray bursts: These are brief, extremely intense emissions from sources distributed across the universe.51
• Other systems: High-energy astrophysical systems such as stellar coronas, white dwarf stars, clusters of galaxies, and novas have also been identified as sources of gamma-ray emission.16

Additionally, high-energy gamma rays are produced in interstellar space through the decay of neutral pions, which are generated by collisions between primary cosmic ray atomic nuclei and interstellar hydrogen.7