SHA-512 is a member of SHA-2 (Secure Hash Algorithm 2) cryptographic hash functions family designed by United States NSA. The resulting hash value of SHA-512 is 512 bits (64-bytes) long. This provides a larger search space compared to SHA-1 and makes it infeasible to reverse engineer to retrieve the original input.
SHA-512 is used commonly used for email addresses hashing, password hashing, and digital record verification, etc.