In the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Brookhaven, NY, physicists are attempting to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang by colliding extremely massive, highly-charged ions together. In this collider, gold atoms (atomic number 79) are accelerated until all electrons have been stripped from the nucleus, thereby producing a particle with a charge of +79e. These nuclei are accelerated to a significant fraction of the speed of light, until ultimately one gold nucleus is passing through the collider every thousandth of a second. What is the current flowing through the collider?
Your answer will come out to be very small. Please state it in pico-Amps (10-12 Amps).