Hello Tara,

The Universe is filled with galaxies like ours. Current estimates suggest that there asre as many as 100 billion galaxies in the Univers, each galaxy having 100 billion stars. Many fo these galaxies are spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way. Over the last 13 years astronomers have found 277 planets arbiting other stars. The planets found to date have been mostly gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn but as the observations improve the hope is to find Earth-like planets and ultimately an Earth-like planets which harbor life. Given the sheer size of the Universe and the number of stars in it there might well be another Tara out there somewhere.

Cheers - David

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/