White pixels in night shots

[BBezerk]

After noticing tiny white spots in some recent night shots on my Sony Alpha 100 I thoughroughly cleaned my sensor and lens but still could not get rid of the spots. Pondering this dilema I realized that dust on the sensor or lens would not produce pure white spots in a night shot because dust would block the light, not over expose a spot on the image. My conclusion is that these must be failed pixels on my sensor. Since my camera is 5+ years old my question is if this is normal for sensors to die a slow pixelating death?

[Bonish Photo]

If they were night shots, are you sure you're not actually getting stars in the image? Can you post a photo so we can tell what you're experiencing

Welcome to the forum by the way!