24601 Valjean (1971 UW) is an asteroid, discovered on 26 October 1971 by Lubo Kohoutek in Hamburg-Bergedorf. It was named after Jean Valjean, the main character in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, who was known as 24601 during his 19 years in prison. Asteroids (from Greek 'star' and 'like, in form') are a class of Small Solar System Bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disk of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet, but as small objects in the outer Solar System were discovered, their volatile-based surfaces were found to more closely resemble comets, and so were often distinguished from traditional asteroids.