"This is called solar minimum," said Dean Pesnell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.
"And it's a regular part of the sunspot cycle."
The change, however, doesn't mean that activity ceases altogether, the expert explains.
Instead, different types of events tend to take hold.
For instance, "during solar minimum we can see the development of long-lived coronal holes," Pesnell says.
"We see these holes throughout the solar cycle, but during solar minimum, they can last for a long time - six months or more."
These are areas in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field opens up, sending streams of solar particles into space.
When the resulting solar wind hits Earth's magnetic field, it can cause space weather events including geomagnetic storms, auroras, and disruptions to communications and even satellites.
According to NASA, it can even affect the space debris floating around Earth.
The drag experienced as objects circle Earth helps to keep low-Earth orbit clean, the space agency explains.
This is the result of heating by ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
When solar minimum occurs, the upper atmosphere cools down, reducing the drag.
And, NASA explains, this means space junk is more likely to linger.
"During solar minimum, the sun's magnetic field weakens and provides less shielding from these cosmic rays," Pesnell says.
"This can pose an increased threat to astronauts travelling through space."
